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| Niloy Neel |
Niloy Neel, 40 years old, popular blogger of Bangladesh capital of Dhanka was reportly murdered in this home yesterday, August 7th.
The blogger well known for his atheist views and anti-islamic writings was attacked by group of 6 Islamic militants armed with matchets.
According to Imran H Sarkar, head of the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, Niloy was the voice against fundamentalism and extremism and was even a voice for minority rights - especially women's rights and the rights of indigenous people.
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| Crime Scene |
Asif Mohiuddin, another secular blogger who himself survived an attack by militants in Bangladesh in 2013, described Chakrabarti as an atheist "free thinker" whose posts appeared on several sites. "He was critical against religions and wrote against Islamist, Hindu and Buddhist fundamentalism. He was a founding member of a rationalist organisation," Mohiuddin, who is now based in Berlin, told AFP by phone.
It was gathered that, Nyloy is the fourth secular blogger to be killed in the Muslim-majority nation since February, when Bangladeshi-born US citizen Avijit Roy was hacked to death in Dhaka. His wife was also badly injured in the attack. The other victims include Ananta Bijoy, Das who was attacked by a group wielding machetes on May 13 as he headed to work in Sylhet, and 27-year-old Washiqur Rahman who was hacked to death in Dhaka in March. Most secular bloggers have either gone into hiding, often using pseudonyms in their posts, or have fled abroad.
Activist groups say they fear that Islamist hit squads have hit lists which contain the full names and addresses of the bloggers. Bangladeshi authorities banned the hardline Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) following Das's murder in May, after facing accusations that they were doing too little to stop such attacks.
In a recent petition addressed to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, authors including Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood called on her government "to do all in their power to ensure that the tragic events of the last three months are not repeated, and to bring the perpetrators to justice". "We are gravely concerned by this escalating pattern of violence against writers and journalists who are peacefully expressing their views," said the petition.
Bangladesh is an officially secular country, but more than 90 percent of its 160 million people are Muslim.
-NDTV Image Credit: (Getty)