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print version[select reports and commentary following the killing of Ananta Bijoy Das in Bangladesh]
- Another free thinker murdered (Daily Star)
- Slain blogger Ananta Bijoy Das’ last words in ‘devil’s world’ (bdnews24.com)
- Government must protect free expression (Dhaka Tribune Editorial)
- Why secular expression is being killed in Bangladesh, one blogger at a time (K. Anis Ahmed)
- Ananta Bijoy Das, Beloved by Humanity, Hacked to Death by Islamists
- The Guardian view on the murder of Ananta Bijoy Das: an assault on a universal value (Editorial)
- Yet another blogger killed (Editorial, New Age)
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Another free thinker murdered
Star Online Report
Blogger and an organiser of local Gonojagoron Mancha, Ananta Bijoy Das, was killed in Sylhet this morning in continuation of attack on free thinkers of the society.
The murder comes in persistence of the recent killings of free thinkers Avijit Roy and Oyashiqur Rahman earlier this year – which have been blamed on fanatics.
Ananta Bijoy was killed at Subid Bazar area in Sylhet city around 9:00am this morning, Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kamrul Hasan told The Daily Star.
Four assailants intercepted him, chased him down and stabbed him indiscriminately all over, a Gonojagoron Mancha activist sought anonymity to tell our Moulvibazar correspondent.
“Ananta died on the spot,†he said. “Ananta was an organiser of local progressive publication outlet Jukti (logic) and a relentless writer on science.â€
Ananta, 31, was son of Rabindra Kumar Das at Subid Bazar area and an employee of Jauwa branch Pubali Bank Limited in Sunamganj, local Mancha spokesperson Debashis Debu said. “He was also actively involved with the politics of Bangladesh Chhatra Union.â€
Ananta Bijoy was also a writer in the Muktomona blog site, founded by slain writer Avijit Roy – who was murdered two and half months ago after he came home from abroad.
Meanwhile, Gonojagaran Mancha brought out a procession on the Dhaka University campus today, while the Sylhet unit of the platform called a six-hour hartal in Sylhet division from 6:00am from tomorrow, protesting the murder.
CHASED DOWN AND KILLED
Ananta Bijoy had just got out from his home, located in Subid Bazar, this morning.
Four assailants gave him a chase from Subid Bazar area, Gousul Hossain, officer-in-charge of Sylhet Airport Police Station, said. “They caught up with him by the side of a nearby pond.â€
“They stabbed him indiscriminately and left him lying there around 9:00am. Severy injured, Bijoy was lying there for about 20 minutes before locals rushed to his aid.â€
He was declared dead after taken to Sylhet Osmani Medical College and Hospital.
Protesting the murder, activists of Gonojagoron Mancha in Dhaka will bring out a protest procession and hold a rally at Shahbagh in the capital around 4:00pm, said a press release issued.
In the press release, the Mancha activists also condemned the killings of the bloggers and free thinkers and blamed the murder on government’s failure to arrest attackers on free thinkers.
THIRD FREE THINKER KILLED THIS YEAR
Threatened with death multiple times before, blogger and writer Avijit Roy was brutally hacked dead at Dhaka University premises on the night of February 26, days after he came back to the country.
He and his wife Rafida Ahmed Banna were hacked with machetes from the rear near TSC after they got out from Ekushey book fair allegedly under the nose of law enforcers. Banna survived.
Police are yet to make a headway in this case but al-Qaeda unit of the Indian subcontinent claimed responsibility of the killing in a video message.
Barely a month after the killing, blogger Oyasiqur Rahman was hacked to death in broad daylight on March 30. Two attackers caught red handed confessed their involvement and that of others.
Free thinkers have been repeatedly targeted by extremist groups throughout Bangladesh and it appears that the trend set in the past on handling such issues is discouraging.
Victims of those attacks were in the likes of poet Shamsur Rahman, writer and intellectual Humayun Azad, bloggers Asif Mohiuddin and the slain Rajib Haider.
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http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/05/12/slain-blogger-ananta-bijoy-das-last-words-in-devils-world
Slain blogger Ananta Bijoy Das’ last words in ‘devil’s world’
News Desk, bdnews24.com
Published: 2015-05-12 22:49:25.0
‘It’s good that you are gone, Dada. Humans must not live in a devil’s world. My respects, Dada. And also a brother’s love’
‘We salute you, Ananta Bijoy’
‘Our respects, Dada’
Even a few hours before his death, Ananta Bijoy Das had sharply criticised the failure of police in arresting the killers of fellow bloggers Avijit Roy and others.
He had also used his acerbic style to lash out at an MP from Sylhet who had threatened to “publicly whip†his university teacher Muhammad Zafar Iqbal.
Das was hacked to death while he was on his way to the city on a rickshaw from Sylhet’s Bankalaparha in Subidbazar.
As late as Monday, Das was critical in a post of the police for not arresting the killers of Roy and Oyashiqur Rahman.
“Police were having fun nearby when Avijit Roy was murdered. The killers walked away unhindered after committing the crime.
“Police later denied any dereliction of duty. One is keen to know what their duties are!†he wrote on Facebook.
“Police had also stood as mere spectators when the killers were fleeing after murdering Oyasiqur Rahman Babu. But it was the police’s bad luck in this case that they could not deny negligence of responsibility.
“For, a brave-hearted third gender, Labanya, managed to catch the killers and send them to jail.â€
Das, a former student of the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, was a regular contributor to Mukto-mona blog site run by Roy before he was murdered.
Blogger Oyasiqur Rahman was killed in Tejgaon within a month and a half of Roy’s murder.
Das was killed in the same manner as the former two.
He had also criticised the police baton-charge on students protesting against the sexual harassment of women on the Dhaka University campus during the Bengali New Year celebrations.
Besides writing for Mukto-mona (free thinker), he also contributed anti-communal and rationalist articles to bdnews24.com.
In 2006, he won the Mukto-mona Rationalist Award.
He was the editor of ‘Jukti’ (logic), a science magazine published from Sylhet.
Das had also authored three books on science and revolution in the Soviet Union, elementary evolution, and the relevance of Charles Darwin in the 21st century.
Among his important pieces in Mukto-mona was one on Jamaat-e-Islami politics, debating whether there was a case for its banning.
Das, who used to work at a private bank, directed his last post at Mahmud Samad Chowdhury, the Sylhet-3 MP.
The MP had threatened to whip Prof Zafar Iqbal, who teaches at the Shahjalal Science and Technology University.
The media reported on May 9 that Chowdhury had described Iqbal as a ‘Sylhet-baiter’ and said he would have had him publicly flogged only if he had the power.
Angry over the Awami League MP’s remark, Das had written in his post that those who were not even a distant match for the teacher’s erudition had the temerity to say he should be flogged.
He also commented on the controversial role of the MP’s father during the Liberation War.
After his killing, many expressed their sorrow on the Facebook.
“About 30 hours back I was sharing your status. I had not imagined that it would be your last,†wrote one.
Another said: “I am truly stunned. We had to even lose you. We are ashamed.â€
And, in a touching farewell, said another: “Dada, it is good that you are gone. Humans should not live in this devil’s world.â€
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Government must protect free expression
Tribune Editorial
End impunity for incitement to violence against others for their views
All possible efforts must be made to apprehend the assailants who viciously hacked blogger Ananta Bijoy Das to death in Sylhet on Tuesday morning.
There are no new lessons to be learnt from this brutal killing. We know already that Das, like other writers before him, has faced death threats from groups merely for expressing his personal opinions.
Like Avijit Roy who was brutally murdered by fanatics on February 27 and Md Oyasiqur Rahman Babu who was hacked to death on March 30, there is no doubt he was targeted for his views.
It is completely unacceptable that groups and individuals are free to incite hatred against anyone with whom they disagree and to create hit lists by placing bounties on people’s heads. If nothing is done to end the impunity with which such feelings are stirred, it becomes inevitable that even more individuals will be targeted for killing by militant fanatics.
The only way to resist the fear these attackers wish to create is for the government to live up to its duty to uphold rule of law and protect freedom of expression.
Authorities must uphold the provisions in Bangladesh’s Penal Code which outlaw incitement to commit violence.
There must be no equivocation in addressing the real problem here. People are entitled to disagree with the views of writers such as Das, but they acted lawfully by expressing their views peacefully. It is the murderers and those who incite violence who need to be held to account.
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Freedom of expression:
Why secular expression is being killed in Bangladesh, one blogger at a time
by K. Anis Ahmed
Islamic extremists have declared open season on bloggers and anyone they deem to be atheists.
Yet another Bangladeshi blogger was hacked to death on Monday. This young man, Ananta Bijoy, belonged to Mukto Mona, the online group of the other recently slain blogger Avijit Roy.
At this point it seems Islamic extremists have declared open season on bloggers and anyone they deem to be atheists. Lists of targets named by militants have been around for some time now. That they are now willing to act on them with brutal efficacy imperils not only individuals, but also a relatively open culture, and certainly the authority of the state and its laws.
A history of murder
The murder of Avijit Roy outside the famous Ekushey Book Fair, and the attack on Oyasikur Rahman, within a month of each other, brought the Islamist assault on Bangladesh’s free-thinkers to the world’s attention.
But the first blogger hacked to death was Rajeeb Haider in February 2013. His killing came at the peak of the “Shahbagh Movement,†which had come about as a direct result of activism by secular bloggers. At that time, the Bangladeshi International Crimes Tribunal had sentenced Qader Molla, a leader of the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, to life imprisonment as a convicted war criminal.
The movement was triggered by Molla brandishing a “V†sign in glee at dodging the death penalty. The bloggers’ online anger exploded into a street protest that quickly swelled to the thousands.
Shahbagh, however, was not an unalloyed success. It was quickly coopted by groups affiliated with the ruling Awami League. The protesters themselves alienated many, both at home and abroad, with their insistence on the death penalty as the only acceptable punishment.
The Islamists, however, did not wait for the movement to wind down by itself. Using social media, they responded with a vicious but canny ploy to paint the bloggers as “atheists†campaigning against religion, not secularists seeking long overdue justice.
Derailing war crimes trials
The Islamists have resorted to any means possible to try to derail the war crimes trials. In late 2013, as BNP fought for a neutral government to oversee elections, their key ally Jamaat, and especially its notorious student wing Shibir, waged a campaign of violence against civilians. What is clear is that, just as in 1971, Jamaat and other Islamists have no qualms about using violence against ordinary civilians to attain their political goals.
In the long and ongoing contest between an intolerant conception of Islam and a rationalist idea of what it means to be Bengali Muslim, the bloggers sadly are not the first victims. Sceptics, including prominent literary figures like Daud Haider in the 1970s and Taslima Nasreen in the 1990s, have faced strong Islamist backlash and have had to leave the country for good.
Another strong secular voice, Humayun Azad, was in fact the first intellectual to be hacked - and that too right outside the Ekushey Book Fair – in 2003, though he died six months later in Germany.
Attacking the secular strain in Bengali Muslim culture
The recent killing of bloggers, then, should not be seen as a sudden awakening of Islamists to free-thinking. A secular intellectual strain has been part of Bengali Muslim culture going at least as far back as the Buddhir Muktir Andolan of the 1920s. Additionaly, there have been long periods of dormancy in this putative conflict.
Many openly sceptical thinkers, from Aruj Ali Matubbar to Ahmed Sharif, passed their careers with no great threats. Many of Bangladesh’s leading literary lights have been sceptics too, if not outright atheist, and vocal to different extents, including iconic figures like Shamsur Rahman, Akhtaruzzaman Ilyas and yet others whom it may no longer be safe to name.
Shamsur Rahman lived much of his life publicly revered, but survived a knife attack in his last years. That attack, along with the assault on Azad, marked the emergence of a more vicious new strain of Islamism.
But even these Islamists seemed aware of the broad cultural disapproval of violence, and such attacks were never as frequent as they have become lately. Until 2013, all mainstream parties too were careful to minimise any civilian casualties.
The BNP-Jamaat movement of 2013 saw, for the first time, the widespread targeting of civilians, crossing a toll of 500 by the end. That kind of violent tactics was repeated by them again earlier this year, taking a further toll of over 150 civilians.
Tolerance versus absolutism
Given Bangladesh’s long tradition of relative tolerance, the killing of bloggers should not be seen as an intensification only of Islamist ambitions. It is tied to a broader history of struggle between those who wish for a fundamentally tolerant society and those who believe in an absolutist one. A mainstream party like BNP signalling violence against civilians as a permissible tactic has surely loosened a sense of constraint.
The current government faces a tough quandary. If it resorts to tougher measures against Islamists, it may be painted by BNP-Jamaat as anti-Islamic, and by its secular allies as autocratic. If the government remains restrained in its response, then the Islamists may feel emboldened.
The trick here might be to ignore the false dichotomy of tough or soft actions, and focus on being much more precise and energetic in response to specific crimes. It also has to make incitement of violence, be it in a Friday sermon or in a digital hole, more punishable.
The Awami League so far has been bold in continuing with the war crimes trials. But that commitment cannot be confined to measures that put extremist leaders in jail, or send them to the gallows. It must also extend to defending the principles of a secular and tolerant Bangladesh by truly making it harder for anyone to kill – or even call for the killing – of another citizen.
Bangladesh is one of the few Muslim nations that chose at birth to be secular. But every time a progressive is felled, and the crime goes without punishment, the voices of a hundred other progressives go quieter. No nation can thrive in the long run if such voices fall silent.
K. Anis Ahmed is a Bangladeshi author of two books – a novel and a collection of short stories – and publisher of the English-language daily newspaper Dhaka Tribune and the literary journal Bengal Lights.
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Ananta Bijoy Das, Beloved by Humanity, Hacked to Death by Islamists
(CNN) Attacks on bloggers critical of Islam have taken on a disturbing regularity in Bangladesh, with yet another writer hacked to death Tuesday.
Ananta Bijoy Das, 32, was killed Tuesday morning as he left his home on his way to work at a bank, police in the northeastern Bangladeshi city of Sylhet said.
Four masked men attacked him, hacking him to death with cleavers and machetes, said Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kamrul Ahsan.
The men then ran away. Because of the time of the morning when the attack happened, there were few witnesses. But police say they are following up on interviewing the few people who saw the incident.
“It’s one after another after another,†said Imran Sarker, who heads the Blogger and Online Activists Network in Bangladesh. “It’s the same scenario again and again. It’s very troubling.â€
Public killings
Das’ death was at least the third this year of someone who was killed for online posts critical of Islam. In each case, the attacks were carried out publicly on city streets.
In March, Washiqur Rahman, 27, was hacked to death by two men with knives and meat cleavers just outside his house as he headed to work at a travel agency in the capital, Dhaka.
Bangladesh blogger murder: The prime suspect
Bangladesh blogger murder: The prime suspect 5 photos
In February, a Bangladesh-born American blogger, Avijit Roy, was similarly killed with machetes and knives as he walked back from a book fair in Dhaka.
The three victims are hardly the only ones who have paid a steep price for their views.
In the last two years, several bloggers have died, either murdered or under mysterious circumstances.
Championing science
Das was an atheist who contributed to Mukto Mona (“Free Thinkers†), the blog that Roy founded.
Mukto Mona contains sections titled “Science†and “Rationalism,†and most of the articles hold science up to religion as a litmus test, which it invariably fails.
While Das was critical of fundamentalism and the attacks on secular thinkers, he was mostly concerned with championing science, a fellow blogger said.
He was the editor of a local science magazine, Jukti (“Reason†), and wrote several books, including one work on Charles Darwin.
In 2006, the blog awarded Das its Rationalist Award for his “deep and courageous interest in spreading secular & humanist ideals and messages in a place which is not only remote, but doesn’t have even a handful of rationalists.â€
“He was a voice of social resistance; he was an activist,†said Sarker. “And now, he too has been silenced.â€
Taking to the streets
Soon after Das’ death, his Facebook wall was flooded with messages of shock and condolence. And hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Sylhet demanding that the government bring his killers to justice.
“We’ve heard from Ananta’s friends that some people threatened to kill him as he was critical of religion,†Das’ brother-in-law Somor Bijoy Shee Shekhor said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We are ashamed, brother Bijoy,†someone posted on Das’ Facebook page.
“Is a human life worth so little? Do we not have the right to live without fear?†wrote another.
The beloved comrade will be remembered by all humanity.
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Editorial : Yet another blogger killed
THE manner and apparent motive of the murder of Ananta Bijoy Das in Sylhet on Tuesday look similar to those of Oyasiqur Rahman at Tejgaon on March 30, Avijit Roy near Dhaka University on February 26 and Rajib Haider at Mirpur more than two years ago and, for that matter, to the attack on the now deceased Professor Humayun Azad on February 27, 2004. All of them had seemingly antagonised the Islamist extremists with their writing, in print and online, in favour of free and rational thinking and opposed to fanaticism borne out of any theological belief system. The ferocity and fanaticism of the killers in all these case highlight how vicious and pervasive intolerance of divergent and opinions has become in society on the one hand and the dire need for pervasive awareness of and effective resistance against bigotry — religious and otherwise. However, the ability and willingness, sincerity and seriousness of the government to lead the fight against such extremism seems to have become increasingly questionable in view of its multiple and multidimensional failures.
First of all, while several people have been arrested in connection with the murders of Rajib and Oyasiqur, the police have not yet been able to identify the masterminds in whose orders the two killings took place. In case of Avijit’s murder, however, could not even trace the killers, let alone their masterminds. There are reasons to believe that if the police have acted with due urgency and efficiency in finding the killers and the masterminds, and bringing them to justice, the killing of Ananta might not even have taken place. It is also intriguing that the police and other law enforcement agencies frequently showcase piles of modern weapons such as automatic rifles and rocket launchers that they claim to have confiscated from the dens and hideouts of so-called Islamist extremists from different parts of the country while the four bloggers and the reputed Dhaka University professor were all attacked with meat cleavers and machetes.
Moreover, there seems to be a tendency of the law enforcers to readily label the perpetrators of such killings as Islamist extremists even before proper investigations are under way, which could very well have helped the real killers remain at large. While it is highly likely that Ananta may have been killed by Islamist extremists, the police must not ignore other potential motives for murder. For example, Ananta’s last Facebook posting was against a local ruling party lawmaker who is reported to have expressed the wish of whipping a writer and Shahjalal University of Science and Technology professor.
In any case, the government needs to make the police pull their socks up and find the real clues and motives instead of making conjectures, and expeditiously bring the killers of Ananta to justice. It needs to realise that prosecution and punishment of the killers will send a stronger message of its commitment to protecting the space for freethinking, mere rhetoric won’t.
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The Guardian view on the murder of Ananta Bijoy Das: an assault on a universal value
Editorial
Freedom of thought must mean freedom of belief and unbelief alike – in Bangladesh and elsewhere
A protest in Dhaka against the murder of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das. Photograph: Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/Zuma Press/Corbis
The slaughter in the street of the Bangladeshi science writer Ananta Bijoy Das by assailants armed with machetes marks the third time this year that an atheist has been murdered in that country for his opinions. The government’s reaction has been weak, where it was not indifferent. Two young men were arrested after a previous murder, but only after they had been seized by onlookers, not the police.
Like Raif Badawi, imprisoned and flogged in Saudi Arabia, the brave men who have been murdered are guilty of nothing more than honesty and integrity. Those are virtues that fundamentalists and fanatics cannot stand. They should inspire us. The struggle for free speech, for free inquiry and for the liberty of atheism need not be a fight against religion, unless religion is opposed to human dignity. It is a struggle against cowardice and conformism, and against everyone who would crush both truth and imagination into a cramped coffin of orthodoxy.
Third atheist blogger killed in Bangladesh knife attack
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Nor is it confined to Bangladesh. That country is still at least in theory opposed to the murder of people for their opinions. Others have sleepwalked further into darkness. In Pakistan, laws against blasphemy and apostasy mean that the state takes an active part in the persecution and sometimes judicial murder of the unorthodox. It’s also true that atheists in Muslim countries cannot always count on the support and understanding of their families. That makes it all the more urgent that they should have ours. Yet their plight is largely ignored. The Swedish government refused Ananta Das a visa when Swedish PEN invited him to discuss the persecution of atheists. It claimed he might not return to Bangladesh so, when he should have been in Stockholm, he was murdered on the street at home instead.
Violent jihadis have circulated a list with more than 80 names of free thinkers whom they wish to kill. The public murder of awkward intellectuals is one definition of barbarism. Governments of the west, and that of Bangladesh, must do much more to defend freedom and to protect lives.
