Concern over Bangla bloggers’ killings

Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has expressed serious concern over the continued deadly attacks on atheist bloggers in Bangladesh, where four of them have lost their lives to religious fanatics till date this year and urged the authority to ensure justice for the victim families.

The fourth Bangladeshi blogger named Niladri Chatterjee Niloy alias Niloy Neel (28) fell prey to the religious fanatics on 7 August 2015 at his Dhaka residential flat. The young blogger, who was a member of Ganajagaran Mancha- a social organization, was hacked to death by machete-wielding killers in front of his wife Asha Moni. The tiny south Asian country with a population of over 160 million, which is India’s immediate eastern neighbor, had earlier lost three bloggers namely Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman Babu and Ananta Bijoy Das in 2015, whose crime was to ‘question the radical Islamists’ in alternate media space.

Besides many organizations across the globe, the United Nations also condemned the killing of Niloy calling upon the Bangladesh authorities to investigate and ‘bring to justice the killers of all previous slain bloggers’. The UN in an earlier statement expressed apprehensions that there seemed to be growing intolerances towards people peacefully expressing their views on various issues’ around the world.

Lately, the Bangladesh police have arrested two suspects (Saad-al-Nahin and Masud Rana) in connection with Niloy’s killing. Following the complaint and clues from Asha Moni, the police succeeded in nabbing both members of Ansarullah Bangla Team, which was recently banned by the government for various terror activities.

“The Awami League led government in Dhaka should show its sincerity in delivering justice for the victim families of slain bloggers at the earliest,” said a statement issued by JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria, adding that Ms Hasina, who is the daughter of Bangabandhu, must establish her credibility as a premier ensuring security to every Bangladeshi national who preaches for democracy and pluralism.