Blogger killed again in Bangladesh

Blogger killed again in Bangladesh

Ananta, member of Mukto-Mona blog, hacked near his house in Sylhet

  

Mother of slain blogger Ananta Bijoy Das cries inconsolably after hearing the news of the murder in Sylhet. A relative, left, fails to hold back tears while trying to console her. Photo: Courtesy of Sheikh Nasir

 

Blogger Ananta Bijoy Das had been in a state of dread since the brutal murder of Bangladesh-born US writer and blogger Avijit Roy on February 26.
Frustrated with the lack of progress in the Avijit murder case, the 32-year-old had posted a status on Facebook on March 15: "If the killers are not tried, it is understood that they will hone another machete for another strike!"
His trepidation turned true yesterday morning when Ananta, known for advocating science and secularism, was viciously hacked to death by a group of masked men in Sylhet city, in a continuation of attacks on free thinkers.
An organiser of local Gonojagoron Mancha, which champions the call for maximum punishment for war criminals, he was on his way to work when the attack happened around 8:45am. He died on the spot, police said.
An official of Pubali Bank's Jauwabazar branch in Sunamganj, Ananta is the third Bangladeshi blogger killed in less than three months in a similar fashion. He used to blog for Mukto-Mona, or free mind, the site Avijit Roy had launched. In many of his blogs and Facebook posts, he wrote against religious fundamentalism.
Barely a month after Avijit's murder on the Dhaka University campus, blogger Oyasiqur Rahman was stabbed to death on March 30 in the capital's Tejgaon in broad daylight.
Religious fanatics have been blamed for both the murders.

MILITANTS AGAIN?
Within hours of Ananta's murder, Ansar Bangla 8 on its Twitter account posted photos of his body and said: “Alhamdulillah, All the Brothers of Operation team are safe.
“For Journalists: Use#AQIS [Al-Qaeda in Indian the Sub-Continent] while reporting about the killing..Don't use Ansar Bangla 8 again.”
The same page later claimed: “Al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-Continent (#AQIS) claimed responsibility of [sic] killing #AnantaBijoy in #Sylhet.”
Following the murders of Avijit and Oyasiqur, Ananta had reached out to the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), a global umbrella organisation embracing humanist, atheist, rationalist, secularist, sceptic, freethinking and similar organisations worldwide.
According to a statement of the IHEU, he wrote to the organisation: "It seems to me I am one of the targets. I am not sure how long I will hide myself. But I am sure if they find me, they will do what they did to Mr Avijit Roy. My life is seriously unsecured [sic]. I am not sure how can I protect myself & my family."
Earlier, he got an invitation from Swedish PEN to speak about the threat to atheists in Bangladesh, but he was refused visa last week by the Swedish embassy in Dhaka, on grounds that he might seek to remain in Sweden, said IHEU, an international NGO with representation on various United Nations committees and other international bodies.
"Each of these murders is a crushing loss to the humanist and secularist communities of South Asia and the world," said the IHEU statement released after Ananta's murder.
Just last week, the IHEU was helping Ananta in seeking to gain asylum in Europe, an effort which ultimately failed, said the British Humanist Association.
Recently, Ananta, who also penned several books, applied for a fellowship in journalism in Norway and made Avijit's father Prof Ajoy Roy one of his referees.
"I called him on Monday to tell him that the reference has been sent to the fellowship authorities," Prof Ajoy told The Daily Star yesterday.
Ananta and Prof Ajoy had known each other for the last several years and alerted each other of possible danger.
CHASED DOWN AND KILLED
Yesterday, Ananta got out of his Subid Bazar home around 8:15am. Finding no rickshaw, he walked to Subid Bazar main road, around 250 yards from his house, said witnesses.
All of a sudden, four assailants, all masked and wearing black sunglasses, came from behind and one of them hacked him in the head with a cleaver.
Hit, Ananta started running back towards his house. But the attackers, who had trousers and half-sleeve shirts on them, chased him down and encircled him near a pond known as Dastidardighi.
This time, they hacked him indiscriminately, leaving gaping holes in his head and other parts of the body.
The attackers fled through Bankalapar Road, while Ananta lay on the scene in a pool of blood for about half an hour until locals called his family, said Abdus Sobhan, a tea seller who witnessed the murder from a close distance.
His family took him to Osmani Medical College Hospital in Sylhet where doctors said he was dead already.
Sobhan said he was making tea for two customers at his stall, around 10 yards from the killing spot, when he saw four men slash Ananta, whom he knew.
The assailants had their faces covered with black cloths, he added.
Sheikh Md Yasin, a sub-inspector of Airport Police Station, who prepared the inquest report, said they found at least 14 severe stab wounds in Ananta's head, neck and back. Several stab marks were also found in other parts of his body.
Parts of his brain came out and one of his index fingers was cut off, he added.
ON THE HIT LIST
Members of Police, Rapid Action Battalion and Criminal Investigation Department have visited the spot and collected evidence.
Pankaj Kumar Dey, assistant superintendent of police of Rab-9, said the murder seemed to be pre-planned and bore the hallmarks of the murders of Avijit and Rajib Haider (a blogger, who was killed in February 2013).
Ananta was among the 84 people on the hit list of militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, Bangla daily Jugantor reported on March 7. Hefajat-e Islam had given the same 84 names to the home ministry, claiming they were anti-Islam.
Debasish Debu, a friend of the victim and chief of Gonojagoron Mancha's Sylhet unit, said Ananta had long been receiving threats from different fanatic groups for his writings, more so since Avijit's murder.
The body of Ananta, the youngest of four siblings, was taken to his Subid Bazar home around 4:00pm where his ailing parents saw him for the last time.
Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, his wife Prof Yasmeen Haque and Awami League lawmaker Amatul Kibria Keya Chowdhury visited the house.
“I believe the government can catch them [the culprits] if it tries, and tries sincerely.... I urge the government to do something before another young boy or a young girl gets killed so that we don't have to see this in our country anymore,” he said after the visit.
PROTESTS
Protesting the murder, activists of Gonojagoron Mancha and Chhatra Union Sylhet units brought out a procession in Sylhet city.
They also held a rally in the hospital area where the protesters alleged Ananta was killed in a planned way for his write-ups on the Mukto-Mona blog and Facebook.
Ananta would not have been killed had the trials of previous murders been held, they said.
Progressive Student Alliance and Gonojagoron Mancha's Sylhet units called a half-day hartal in Sylhet city today.
The activists of Gonojagoron Mancha in Dhaka also brought out a procession and held a rally at Shahbagh in the afternoon.

পাহাড়িরা পাকিস্তান বিরোধী ??

১৯৭১ সালে বাংলাদেশে ৪৫টি নৃ-গোষ্ঠী ছিল। এর মধ্যে জনসংখ্যার বিচারে বৃহৎ গোষ্ঠীটি হল চাকমা গোষ্ঠী। ১৯৭০ সালের ৯ ডিসেম্বর সামরিক প্রহরায় অনুষ্ঠিত হয়েছিলো সত্তরের সাধারন নির্বাচন। পূর্ব বাংলার ১৬৯টি আসনের মধ্যে আওয়ামী লীগ জয় লাভ করে ১৬৭টি আসন। অন্যদিকে পিডিবি থেকে প্রার্থী হয়ে নুরুল আমিন ও সতন্ত্র প্রার্থী হিসেবে জয় পায় চাকমা রাজা ত্রিদিব রায়। অন্য রাজনৈতিক দলগুলো পূর্ব পাকিস্তান থেকে কোন আসল লাভ করতে পারে নি। বঙ্গবন্ধু শেখ মুজিব ত্রিবিদ রায়কে আওয়ামী লীগ থেকে নির্বাচন করার প্রস্তাব করেন। কিন্তু তিনি তাতে রাজি না হয়ে সতন্ত্রভাবে নির্বাচন করেন।১৯৪৭ সালে দেশ ভাগের প্রধান শর্ত ছিল- মুসলিম অধ্যুষিত অঞ্চল নিয়ে পাকিস্তান এবং অমুসলিম অধ্যুষিত অঞ্চল নিয়ে ভারত গঠন হবে। স্বভাবতই আদিবাসী প্রধান পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামের অর্ন্তভুক্তির সম্ভাবনা ছিল ভারতের সাথে। দেশ বিভাগের তিন দিন পরেও পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামে ভারতীয় পতাকা উড়ে। পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামকে ভারতের সাথে যোগ করার জন্য চাকমা নেতারা দিল্লি গিয়ে কংগ্রেসকে বিশেষভাবে অনুরোধ করে আসেন। কিন্তু রাজনৈতিক সমীকরণে পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম শেষ পর্যন্ত পাকিস্তানের সাথে যু্ক্ত হয়। ২১ আগস্ট পাকিস্তানের বেলুচ রেজিমেন্ট রাঙামাটিতে ভারতের পতাকা নামিয়ে পাকিস্তানের পতাকা উত্তোলন করে। একইভাবে বান্দরবানেও বার্মার পতাকা উড়েছিল যা পরবর্তীতে নামিয়ে ফেলা হয়। ভারত ও বার্মার পতাকা উত্তোলনের ঘটনা পাকিস্তানি শাসকদের ক্ষুব্ধ করে। পাকিস্তান জন্মের শুরু থেকে তাদের ধারণা জন্মায় যে পাহাড়িরা পাকিস্তান বিরোধী।
পাকিস্তান আমলে পূর্ব পাকিস্তানের বৃহৎ শোষিতদের বড় অংশ ছিল বাঙালি। শোষণের বিরুদ্ধে বাঙালির প্রথম প্রতিবাদ করে ৫২-এর ভাষা আন্দোলনের মধ্য দিয়ে। ‘রাষ্ট্র ভাষা বাংলা চাই’ এটাই ছিল আমাদের স্লোগান। একাত্তরে বাঙালি, অবাঙালি সমানভাবে যুদ্ধ করলেও মূল লড়াইটা শুরু হয় বাঙালি জাতীয়তাবাদী আন্দোলন থেকে। বাঙালি জাতীয়তাবাদী আন্দোলন শুরু হয় ৫২-এর ভাষা আন্দোলনের মধ্য দিয়ে। এবং ছয় দফাকে স্পষ্ট করে বলাই হয়; ছয় দফা বাঙালি জাতির মুক্তির সনদ। অর্থাৎ বাঙালি জাতির আর্থ-সামাজিক সকল মুক্তি বা দাবী দাওয়া ছয় দফার মাধ্যমে উপস্থাপিত হয়। ফলে স্বাভাবিকভাবে সংখ্যালঘু অবাঙালীদের স্বার্থ সেখানে গৌন হিসেবে ছিল। এখানে ত্রিদিব রায়ের ছেলে দেবাশীষ রায়ের বক্তব্য গুরুত্বপূর্ণ মনে হয়েছে। তিনি বলছেন- “My father was forced to collaborate with Pakistan. His view was-we are a small nation. We can’t take on Pakistan, but Bengalis can. And yet, we were not part of the Bangladesh plan. The Six-point Plan was all about Bengalis, and there was nothing about Chakmas in it. In March 71, who knew the future?
পাকিস্তান সেনা বাহিনী পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামে অপরেশন চালাবে না! এমন আশ্বাসের ভিত্তিতে ত্রিদিব রায় পাকিস্তানকে সার্পোট দিতে শুরু করে। ত্রিদিব রায় পাকিস্তান সার্পোট করলেও পাকিস্তান তাদের ধ্বংস-যজ্ঞ ও হত্যা থেকে পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামকে রেহাই দেয় নি। অদ্ভুত বিষয় হল ত্রিদিব রায় পাকিস্তান সার্পোট দিতে থাকে এবং বাকি জীবন পাকিস্তানে থেকে মৃত্যু বরণ করে। চাকমা রাজা ত্রিদিব রায় পাকিস্তানিদের পক্ষ নিলেও চাকমা রাজপরিবারের অন্যতম সদস্য কে. কে রায়ের মুক্তিযুদ্ধে সহায়তা ও সর্বাত্মক সহযোগিতা করেছিলেন। এছাড়াও শেখ মুজিবের ৭ই মার্চ ভাষণে অনুপ্রাণিত হয়ে মুক্তিযুদ্ধে যোগ দেওয়ার সংকল্পবন্ধ হন রসময় চাকমা। কিন্তু কোন এক অজ্ঞাত কারণে ভারতে প্রশিক্ষণ নিতে গেলে তাকে বাদ দেওয়া হয়। কিন্তু তাতেও তিনি দমে যান নি। দেশে ফিরে এসে খাগড়াছড়ির এক পাঞ্জাবির বাড়িতে তিনি আগুন জ্বালিয়ে দেন। এছাড়াও অনেক চাকমা জিয়াউর রহমানের জেড ফোর্সকে নিরাপদে ফেনী নদী পার হতে সাহায্য করে। চাকমাদের থেকে অভিযোগ করা হয়; মুক্তিযুদ্ধে অনুপ্রাণিত হয়ে অনেক তরুণ, যুবক ও সাধারণ মানুষ যোগ দিতে চাইলেও তৎকালীন সময়ে চট্টগ্রামের জেলা প্রশাসক ও স্থানীয় আওয়ামী লীগ নেতা চাকমাদের অবিশ্বাস করে মুক্তিযুদ্ধে অংশ থেকে দূরে রাখে। সম্ভবত অবিশ্বাস চাকমা রাজা ত্রিবিদ রায়ের কারণেই জন্ম নেয়। আদিবাসীদের পাকিস্তানীদের বিরুদ্ধে যুদ্ধ করার একটাই কারণ ছিল; তারা ভেবেছে বাংলাদেশ স্বাধীন হলে তারাও স্বাধীনভাবে বসবাস করতে পারবে। যদিও সে স্বপ্ন ভাঙতে বেশি দিন লাগে নি।
পাকিস্তান আমলে ১৯৬০ সালে কাপ্তাই বাঁধের ফলে পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামের চাকমা প্রধান অঞ্চল পানিতে ডুবে যায়। এর ফলে এক লাখ আদিবাসী নিজের ভিটা-মাটি ছেড়ে দেশান্তরিত হয়। এখানে উল্লেখ করা প্রয়োজন যে, বাঁধ দেওয়ার পূর্বে পাকিস্তান সরকার কোন প্রকার সর্তকতা বা ঘোষণা জারি করে নি। ৭০-এর নির্বাচনে বিজয়ী হয়ে ত্রিদিব রায় শেখ মুজিবের সাথে দেখা করেন। শেখ মুজিব যেহেতু পাকিস্তানের প্রধানমন্ত্রী হতে যাচ্ছেন তাই তিনি পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামকে স্প্রেশাল এলাকা হিসেবে ঘোষণা করার দাবী জানান। শেখ মুজিব কামাল হোসেনের সাথে এই বিষয়ে আলোচনা করার পরামর্শ দেন। পরবর্তীতে কামাল হোসেন আশ্বাস দিয়ে বলেন; শেখ মুজিব আপনার প্রস্তাব মেনে নেবেন। পরবর্তীতে ২৫শে মার্চের মধ্য দিয়ে দেশে যুদ্ধ শুরু হয়ে যায়। ফলে সব হিসাব পাল্টে যায়। দেশ স্বাধীনের পর ১৯৭২ সালে মানবেন্দ্র নারায়ণ লারমা স্বায়ত্বশাসনের দাবী জানিয়ে স্বারকলিপি দেন তৎকালীন প্রধানমন্ত্রী শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান কাছে। তিনি স্বারকলিপি ছুড়ে ফেলে দেন এবং লারমাকে উপদেশ দিয়ে বলেন-তোমরা তোমাদের জাতিগত পরিচয় ভুলে যাও এবং বাঙালি হয়ে যাও। তিনি আরো বলেন লারমা তুমি পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম নিয়ে বাড়াবাড়ি করো না। প্রয়োজনে পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামে এক..দুই…দশ লাখ বাঙালি ঢুকিয়ে দিয়ে তোমাদের জাতিগত পরিচয় মুছে দেওয়া হবে। শেখ মুজিব থেকে থেকে এমন কথা শুনে আদিবাসী নেতারা হতাশ হন। ১৯৭৩ সালের ১৬ ফেব্রুয়ারি রাঙামাটির এক জনসভায় পাহাড়িদের উদ্দেশ্যে শেখ মুজিব বলেন; আমরা এখন সবাই বাঙালি। এমন বক্তব্যে পাহাড়িরা ক্ষুদ্ধ হয় এবং ১৯৭৩ সালের নির্বাচনে আওয়ামী লীগকে ভোট না দিয়ে তার জবাব দেয়। ১৯৯১ সালের আগ পর্যন্ত পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম থেকে কোন আওয়ামী লীগ প্রার্থী জয় লাভ করতে পারে নি। মানুষের জাতিগত একটি পরিচয় থাকে। যেমনটি আমাদের ছিল পাকিস্তান আমলে। কিন্তু বাংলাদেশের সংবিধানের ৬নং ধারায় লেখা হয়; বাংলাদেশের নাগরিকবৃন্দ বাঙালি বলিয়া পরিচিত হইবে! সংবিধানের মাধ্যমে আদিবাসীদের উপর রাষ্ট্রকর্তৃক জোর পূর্বক বাঙালিত্ব চাপিয়ে দিয়ে তাদের পরিচয় মুছে দেওয়ার চেষ্টা করা হয়েছে।
পাহাড়ে বাঙালিদের স্থায়ী বসতির উদ্দেশ্যে পাঠানো শুরু হয় জিয়াউর রহমানের আমল থেকে। জিয়াউর রহমান এশিয়ান ডেভলপমেন্ট ব্যাংকের সহায়তায় ১৯৭৬ সালে পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম উন্নয়ন বোর্ড গঠন করে সেখানে যোগাযোগসহ বিভিন্ন সেক্টরে বিপুল উন্নয়ন কর্মকান্ড- পরিচালনা করেন। এগুলো করার একটাই উদ্দেশ্য ছিল তা হল; পাহাড়ে বাঙালিদের স্থায়ী বসতি স্থাপন। জিয়াউর রহমানের আমলেই মূলত পাহাড়ে বাঙালি স্থায়ী বসতি শুরু হয়। এর মাধ্যমে শুরু হয় রাষ্ট্রীয়ভাবে ভূমি দখলের উৎসব যা এখনো সমান তালে চলছে। রাষ্ট্রীয় উন্নয়নের নামে এক দিকে পাহাড় কেড়ে নেওয়া হচ্ছে অন্য দিকে সশস্র বাহিনীর সহায়তার শেল্টারদের মাধ্যমে পাহাড়িতে উচ্ছেদ করা হয়, যা এখনো চলছে। ফলে পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামের পরিস্থিতি জটিল আকার ধারণ করে। ১৯৯৬ সালে আওয়ামী লীগ সরকার ক্ষমতায় এসে শান্তি চুক্তি করে। ফলে পরিস্থিতি কিছুটা স্বাভাবিক হয়। তবে এতো বছরেও সরকারের ইচ্ছার অভাবে শান্তি চুক্তির কোন কিছুই বাস্তবায়ন হয়নি বলে আদিবাসী নেতারা অভিযোগ করেন। একদিকে রাষ্ট্রীয় প্রতারণা অন্যদিকে প্রশাসনের সহায়তায় বাঙালি কর্তৃক ভূমি দখল ও আগ্রসণে পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রামে আদিবাসীদের বসবাস কঠিন হয়ে উঠছে।
দেশের একমাত্র আদিবাসী বীরবিক্রম ইউকেচিং। তাঁর আসর নাম ইউ কে চিং মারমা। বাংলাদেশ স্বাধীন করার জন্য সমগ্র আদিবাসী সম্প্রদায় রক্ত দিয়েছেন, আদিবাসী মা-বোন পাকিস্তানীর হাতে ধর্ষিত হয়েছেন কিন্তু রাষ্ট্রীয়ভাবে তা আমরা স্মরণ ও স্বীকৃতি দিতে কৃপণতা করি। একমাত্র আদিবাসী নারী মুক্তিযোদ্ধা কাঁকন বিবি। অদ্ভুত বিষয় হচ্ছে; আদিবাসী মুক্তিযোদ্ধাদের অনেকের নাম তালিকায় আসে নি। সংখ্যাগুরু সবসময় চাপিয়ে দেওয়া পছন্দ করে। গত সপ্তাহে প্রাণ গ্রুপের মালিক আমজাদ চৌধুরী যারা যায়। তিনি অসংখ্য বাঙালি অফিসারের মতন পাকিস্তানীদের পক্ষে মুক্তিযুদ্ধের বিপক্ষে যুদ্ধ করে। আমাদের স্যোশাল মিডিয়াগুলোতে আমজাদ চৌধুরী মারা যাওয়ার পর তিনি আহমাদিয়া, এই পরিচয়টি হাই লাইট আকারে প্রকাশ করে। এই একই বিষয়টি চাকমা রাজা ত্রিদিব রায়ের বেলায় চাকমা পরিচয়টি হাই লাইট করা হয়েছিল। অথচ আমরা কী কখনো শুনেছি; রাজাকারের শিরোমনি গোলাম আযম একজন সুন্নী রাজাকার কিংবা যুদ্ধাপরাধী সাঈদী মুসলিম রাজাকার? শুনি নি কারণ এখানে আমরা সংখ্যাগুরু তাই এমনভাবে তারা পরিচিত হয় নি। ত্রিবিদ রায় যখন মারা যায় তার লাশ যেন দেশ না আসতে পারে তার জন্য অনেক প্রতিবাদ সমাবেশ হয়েছে অথচ সংখ্যাগুরুদের রাজাকারের মধ্যমনি গোলাম আজম মারা যাওয়ার পর তার জানাজা হয় জাতীয় মসজিদে! ত্রিদিব রায়ের লাশ পবিত্র মাটিতে দাফন হবে না, তার বিরুদ্ধে আমাদের প্রতিবাদ আর গোলাম আজমের জানাজায় সংখ্যাগুরুর নীরবতা! এটা কী আমাদের জাতি প্রীতি নাকি ধর্মীয় আইডেন্টিটিতে রাজাকারের হেন্ডমাস্টারকে আমারা বাংলার মাটিতে ঠাঁই দিলাম? এমন প্রশ্ন স্বাভাবিকভাবে সামনে এসে দাঁড়ায়। 

Human Rights

Human Rights

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, customary international law , general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights law lays down obligations of Governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

Universal and inalienable
The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948, has been reiterated in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, for example, noted that it is the duty of States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems.

All States have ratified at least one, and 80% of States have ratified four or more, of the core human rights treaties, reflecting consent of States which creates legal obligations for them and giving concrete expression to universality. Some fundamental human rights norms enjoy universal protection by customary international law across all boundaries and civilizations.

Human rights are inalienable. They should not be taken away, except in specific situations and according to due process. For example, the right to liberty may be restricted if a person is found guilty of a crime by a court of law

Interdependent and indivisible
All human rights are indivisible, whether they are civil and political rights, such as the right to life, equality before the law and freedom of expression; economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to work, social security and education , or collective rights, such as the rights to development and self-determination, are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. The improvement of one right facilitates advancement of the others. Likewise, the deprivation of one right adversely affects the others.

Equal and non-discriminator
Non-discrimination is a cross-cutting principle in international human rights law. The principle is present in all the major human rights treaties and provides the central theme of some of international human rights conventions such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The principle applies to everyone in relation to all human rights and freedoms and it prohibits discrimination on the basis of a list of non-exhaustive categories such as sex, race, colour and so on. The principle of non-discrimination is complemented by the principle of equality, as stated in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

Both Rights and Obligations
Human rights entail both rights and obligations. States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfil human rights. The obligation to respect means that States must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. The obligation to protect requires States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. The obligation to fulfil means that States must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights. At the individual level, while we are entitled our human rights, we should also respect the human rights of others.

International Human Rights Law
The international human rights movement was strengthened when the United Nations General Assembly adopted of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10 December 1948. Drafted as ‘a common standard of achievement for all peoples and nations’, the Declaration for the first time in human history spell out basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all human beings should enjoy. It has over time been widely accepted as the fundamental norms of human rights that everyone should respect and protect. The UDHR, together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, form the so – called International Bill of Human Rights.

A series of international human rights treaties and other instruments adopted since 1945 have conferred legal form on inherent human rights and developed the body of international human rights. Other instruments have been adopted at the regional level reflecting the particular human rights concerns of the region and providing for specific mechanisms of protection. Most States have also adopted constitutions and other laws which formally protect basic human rights. While international treaties and customary law form the backbone of international human rights law other instruments, such as declarations, guidelines and principles adopted at the international level contribute to its understanding, implementation and development. Respect for human rights requires the establishment of the rule of law at the national and international levels.

International human rights law lays down obligations which States are bound to respect. By becoming parties to international treaties, States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfil human rights. The obligation to respect means that States must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. The obligation to protect requires States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. The obligation to fulfil means that States must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights.

Through ratification of international human rights treaties, Governments undertake to put into place domestic measures and legislation compatible with their treaty obligations and duties. Where domestic legal proceedings fail to address human rights abuses, mechanisms and procedures for individual complaints or communications are available at the regional and international levels to help ensure that international human rights standards are indeed respected, implemented, and enforced at the local level. Ref: Internet

Fatima Bhutto slams killing of Bangladeshi bloggers

Fatima Bhutto slams killing of Bangladeshi bloggers

           

They are everywhere, the victims and the perpetrators both, Fatima Bhutto wrote. File Photo: AFP

Star Online Report

Fatima Bhutto, grand-daughter of former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, criticised the murder of Bangladeshi bloggers.
The criticism came in an article she wrote for Indian newspaper The Hindu on intolerance towards freethinkers in her country, Pakistan.
She also said that Shias have overtaken Hindus and Christians as targets of sectarian killings, and Pakistan has become a country of ghosts.
“They are everywhere, the victims and the perpetrators both,” she wrote in The Hindu on Friday.
Ismailis, she said, were a peaceful community of Muslims who shared a closeness with the country’s Shia minority and are thus victimised.
“Seventy per cent of Pakistan’s Muslims are Sunni. And in this predominantly Muslim country, it is no longer Hindus or Christians who face the largest threat of violence from orthodox and radicalised groups but Shias,” Ms Bhutto said.
“We cannot look at the dead too long — only long enough to check that what ended their lives will not end our own.

Fatal lists swing wildly from the specific to general. Are you Hazara? Are you Shia? Are you an Ahmadi? Any of the above will get you killed.”
Implicitly slamming the murder of bloggers in Bangladesh, she said: “Soon, are you a liberal?
Supporters of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party, young Pakistanis living inside and outside the country, already troll the Internet attacking anyone vaguely critical of their values.
Every journalist that criticises their party is a ‘lifafa journo’, implying the only reason to raise a bad word against them would be money, rather than common sense.
“Soon, like in Bangladesh, you will be asked: Are you a writer?
“There is violence everywhere here — in threats and in action. Everywhere.”
Every province that suffers the horrendous attacks suffers amnesia too.
“Sindh’s phenomenally corrupt government mounted a defence against its sin of not protecting the 43 dead — terror happens all over the country, the chief minister said, it happens in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab too.”
Ms Bhutto noted that Pakistan had ended its moratorium on the death penalty in December.
In the last six months, it has hanged over 100 people on death row. Of the 8,000 prisoners on death row in Pakistan, more than 1,000 have exhausted all their appeals.
“This was the response after the brutal Peshawar school attack: kill death row convicts and we will be safer.But since then, we have only had more blood.”

UN experts condemn recent killings of bloggers in Bangladesh

UN experts condemn recent killings of bloggers in Bangladesh

           

Star Online Report

Condemning recent killings of bloggers in Bangladesh, UN human rights experts today warned that it was an alarming signal of deterioration of the space for freedom of expression.
In a statement issued from Geneva, United Nations Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression, David Kaye, and on extrajudicial executions, Christof Heyns, called for a prompt and thorough investigation in the killings.
According to reports, Ananta Bijoy Das, who wrote for a website promoting “science, rationalism, secularism, freethinking, human rights, religious tolerance, and harmony amongst all people in the globe,” was hacked to death in the city of Sylhet on Tuesday 12. In February, the blogger Avijit Roy was killed and his wife seriously injured in a similar attack while in Dhaka. A month later, another blogger, Oyasiqur Rahman, was also killed in the Bangladeshi capital, the statement reads.
The UN Special Rapporteurs called for a prompt and thorough investigation of these cases, stressing that “it is vital to ensure the identification of those responsible for these horrendous crimes, as well as those who may have masterminded the attacks.”
“These recurrent murders are reprehensible in and of themselves, and they exert a chilling effect with impact far beyond the direct victims,” noted Kaye. “Attacks against writers like Bijoy Das affect the society as a whole.”
“Given the very public nature of these horrendous crimes targeting voices critical of extremism, it is very important that authorities publicly condemn the crimes and emphasize the importance of free speech online and offline,” he added.
States are under the obligations to provide, through judicial or other means, effective protection of individuals and groups who may be subject to extra-legal, arbitrary or summary executions, Heyns noted.

The Special Rapporteurs urged the Bangladeshi authorities to consider specific initiatives to prevent the recurrence of attacks against writers and activists. This should include not only the provision of particular physical protections to those who are potential targets for violence, but also open public debate challenging extremist views of all kinds.

Undercurrent of Islamic Extremism in the West

Undercurrent of Islamic Extremism in the West

Undercurrent of Islamic Extremism in the West

2015-05-14T21:07:04+00:0

It is highly appropriate and very pertinent that within a matter of days of winning the national election in the UK, David Cameron, the newly elected prime minister, has taken steps to tackle the menace of religious extremism and radicalisation of the country. A new legislative programme of counter-terrorism incorporating anti-radicalisation would be included in the Queen’s Speech on 27th May. This shows how seriously David Cameron is taking this menace of religious extremism in the country!

Islamisation and religious extremism are endemic not only in Britain but also throughout the whole of the West and beyond. Apart from 9/11 attack in America in 2001, there were numerous other terrorist attacks in many Western countries since then. Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in January of this year is the most recent major terrorist attack in the West. Islamic terrorism is not, however, confined to the West alone. Asian and African countries are as much, if not more, victims of this barbarity. Islamic radicalisation is the fodder to this extremism.

It is estimated that more than 600 men and women, calling themselves Jihadists, had gone to Turkey, Syria and Iraq from the UK alone to fight the ‘holy’ war under the IS flag. What is it that is propelling these Islamists to undertake such extreme measures to sacrifice their own lives to kill others whom they call ‘non-believers’? Who or what is feeding them, encouraging them and sustaining them in such barbaric missions? Why are those blatant Islamists migrating to the liberal West and then itching to go back to fight for their religion?

There are multiple, somewhat disjointed, answers to this literally indefatigable question. But the essential thread is that those Islamists had been thoroughly brainwashed by their religious tribalism and perpetually reminded and reinforced by their mullahs at their places of worship.

In the early 1970s, there were no more than twenty or so mosques in the whole of the UK. There were one or two additional Islamic Centres and libraries and that was all. If ardent Muslims in other parts of the country wanted to perform their religious duties, they had to do those in private. But by 2007 the number of mosques had gone up to nearly 1500 and by 2014 it was well over 2000. In addition, there are numerous prayer rooms, religious function rooms, Islamic congregation centres and so forth. Admittedly, mosques are the places where people perform their religious duties collectively. But the other function mosques perform is to spread messages of ‘unique and superior status of Islam’ by the ill-educated, more likely illiterate, mullahs. These messages are the seed corn of moronic views encouraging communalism and inculcating hatred among congregates against the host community. Multiculturalism cannot be farthest from such core messages.

The mullahs, who are educated to nothing more than reading Arabic scriptures in Quran without understanding anything at all, started making up messages of Allah for their sermons. They tell the congregate that weep and ask for material help (and anything else you care to ask) to Allah and Allah may grant you. They say, if you do what religion wants you to do (no alcoholic drink etc.), you will go to heaven and will have unlimited supply of alcoholic drink; if you go to heaven Allah will reward you with 72 ‘houris’ (virgin women) every day! There are many other obnoxious messages. On the other hand, if you – the Muslims – do not follow the religious edicts, you will be burned in the hell-fire for eternity. No wonder, under this twin carrot and stick approach, which is reinforced five times a day, the people get brainwashed and do what mullahs tell them to do. They become simply morons; the messages emanating from the mullahs become vivid and absolute truths to them!

Then came the buzzword called ‘religious right’ in the early-1980s, which opened the floodgate of brainwashed and deeply ingrained religious people, mainly from Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries, to demand all sorts of religious facilities such as setting up of mosques, prayer rooms in offices, schools, colleges, hospitals and even at railway stations and airports. This ‘religious right’ also created opportunities for the so-called ‘mullahs’ to demand entry in to the West on religious grounds. At the same time, Saudi Arabia (with almost unlimited petro-dollars at its coffers) sponsoring Wahhabism found great opportunities to push its fundamentalist religious ideology in the West. It is estimated that Saudi Arabia alone had spent more than $70 billion from late 1950s till 2014 in propagating and sponsoring its fundamentalist ideology. What could be better spent than donating money in setting up mosques, faith schools, madrassahs and so forth in the West?

The strategy of Saudi Arabia and other petro-dollar rich Middle Eastern countries was that this ‘religious right’ would be used not only to beat but also to defeat the West. Islam will be exported to the West and Islamic culture will be established throughout the West. Coupled with this ‘religious right’ came the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) when the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) (Saudi Arabia and other die-hard Muslim countries) signed the Declaration in 2008, after years of resisting it because it did not allow polygamy for Muslims – commonly practised in the Middle East!

When in 2010 France enacted a law banning the religious attires for women such as ‘burqa’, ‘niqab’ and ‘hijab’, the law was challenged in the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg by the Muslim Human Rights group under the cloak that it violated the human rights of the Muslim women. However, the Court after lengthy consideration over a period of three years upheld the French government’s ban in its ruling on 1 July 2014 on grounds that it does not breach Muslim women’s human rights. It must be mentioned here that the claim that wearing such attires is a religious obligation is nothing but egregious falsification.

The other plank of the strategy of the fundamentalist countries such as Saudi Arabia alongside this edifice of legally enforcing Islamic culture in the West is to physically and ruthlessly suppress any attempt to criticise or challenge Islamic edicts – the ‘religious right’ they so vigorously pretend to uphold at their convenience is thrown out of the window when it becomes embarrassing to them. The ‘fatwa’ on Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini for his assassination following the publication of ‘The Satanic Verses’; killing of over 3000 people in the attack on World Trade Centre on 9 September, 2001; killing of 53 people in London Underground bombing on July 7, 2005; killing of 17 people in Charlie Hebdo massacre; numerous other attacks throughout the whole world including numerous hacking of Bangladeshi secularists all are testament to Islamic barbarism. The Human Rights, religious freedom etc. are all irrelevant and redundant when it comes to affect Islam!

David Cameron was absolutely right when he said that UK was ‘passively tolerant society’ for far too long. The vicious religious seed had been sown in this country and in other Western countries some decades ago by the ‘friendly Muslim States’ and now the chickens are coming home to roost. The Jihadists returning from Syria may pose threats to the security of this country, but that is relatively a minor threat as they may be identified and secured. But the major and intractable problem is the perpetual regeneration of Jihadists in mosques, in prayers rooms, in colleges and universities throughout the whole country. The large number of hijab clad Muslim women, claiming religious obligation (totally erroneously), the proliferation of mosques up and down the whole country are major problems. Actions need to be taken now. It is not too late to take corrective actions now. But delay it any further, it may devour the host. By A Rahman

Sweden slammed for denying visa to blogger Ananta

Sweden slammed for denying visa to blogger Ananta

 

Bangladesh forensics police investigate the site where blogger Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to death, in Sylhet on May 12, 2015. Photo: AFP 

A free speech group launched a blistering attack on Sweden on Wednesday after it denied a travel visa to a secular Bangladeshi blogger who was then hacked to death by suspected Islamists.
Swedish PEN, which defends freedom of expression, slammed the refusal as "horrific" and said it would demand an explanation from the authorities, claiming Ananta Bijoy Das would be still alive if the visa had been granted.
"We want to know where the directive came from," Swedish PEN official Elnaz Baghlanian told AFP.
A masked gang wielding machetes hacked Das, 33, to death Tuesday in broad daylight as he headed to work at a local bank in Sylhet in northeastern Bangladesh, the third such deadly attack by suspected Islamists since February.
Another blogger, Washiqur Rahman, was hacked to death in March and writer Avijit Roy was killed in February.
Bangladeshi police would not comment on the motive for Das' killing, but fellow writers said he had been on a hitlist drawn up by militants who were behind Roy's killing.
Swedish PEN had invited Das to Stockholm to speak on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, about the deteriorating situation in Bangladesh for journalists and writers.

 

But the Swedish embassy in Dhaka had refused him a travel visa, according to PEN.
"You belong to a category of applicants where there is always a risk involved when granting a visa that you will not leave (the) Schengen area after the visit. Furthermore, the purpose of your trip is not urgent enough to grant you (a) visa," read an excerpt of his rejection letter from the Swedish embassy in Dhaka, published on PEN's website.
Swedish foreign ministry spokesman Kent Oberg confirmed the embassy had rejected his application, but provided no details.
"It's horrific that the embassy is more concerned that he will stay in the country than that he will be murdered," Baghlanian said.
"He would have been alive if he had been here, he was supposed to be here for two weeks," she said.
- Death threats -
Sweden has one of the European Union's most generous asylum policies, granting asylum to more than 70 percent of all refugees.
Baghlanian said she did not know whether Das had considered seeking asylum in Sweden.
"We don't know anything about that. And now we'll never know," she said.
Friends said Das was an editor of a quarterly magazine called Jukti (Logic) and headed the Sylhet-based Science and Rationalist Council.
They said he had received threats from Islamists after he regularly blogged for a website called Mukto-Mona, founded and moderated by Roy, in which he criticised aspects of Islam and Hinduism.
On Wednesday, secular activists marched through Sylhet to demand justice for Das, and accused the government of failing to protect free thinkers.
The recent deaths have sparked international condemnation, with Washington on Tuesday calling on Dhaka to bring the perpetrators of the latest killing to justice.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Das' murder was part of an "alarming" trend of violent intolerance of religious freedom and speech in Bangladesh.
"This pattern of vicious attacks on secular and atheist writers not only silences the victims but also sends a chilling message to all in Bangladesh who espouse independent views on religious issues," said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW.

Asif Mohiuddin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

       

Asif Mohiuddin
Residence	Berlin
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Occupation	Secular activist
Awards	The Bobs-Best of Online Activism

Asif Mohiuddin is a Bangladeshi secular activist and religious critic. He was the winner of The Bobs-Best of Online Activism award in 2012.^[1] He was imprisoned by the Bangladesh government for posting “offensive comments about Islam and Mohammed”.^[2] Deutsche Welle stated that "Asif's blog was one of the most read web pages in Bangladesh and is known for its strong criticism of religious fundamentalism and Bangladesh's 'anti-people politics". Now he lives in Berlin, Germany.

Attack and imprisonment

Mohiuddin wrote articles criticising male chauvinism, domestic violence and the death penalty for apostasy in Islam,^[3] leading to fundamentalists calling for his death. In 2013 Mohiuddin was attacked and stabbed outside his house by four youths, inspired by Al-Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki.^[4][5] A month later, Bangladeshi bloggers and online activists started the 2013 Shahbag protests, leading to Islamist groups, including Hefazat-e-Islam, assembling over a million people in counter-demonstrations that called for blasphemy laws in the country, and attacks on secularists in Bangladesh. Rewards were offered for anyone who would behead secularist bloggers.^[6] The secular Bangladeshi government imprisoned bloggers, including Mohiuddin, and blocked many websites.^[7][8][9]
In March 2013 Mohiuddin's blog on the public blogging site somewhereinblog.net,^[10] was shut down by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, a move protested by the 2013 Bengali blog blackout. In April, Mohiuddin was arrested for "blasphemous" posts,^[11] along with three other bloggers.^[12] The crackdown on independent blogs, and the closure of the newspaper Amar Desh, was strongly criticised by Human Rights Watch^[13] and IHEU.^[14][15] Shortly after the bloggers were arrested, Mukto-Mona, an independent site of freethinkers and atheists of mainly Bengali and South Asian descent, issued a statement titled, 'Bangladesh government squishing freedom of speech by arresting and harassing young bloggers inside the country'.^[16] Amnesty International also issued a statement titled, 'Bangladesh: writers at risk of torture’.^[17] The Center for Inquiry (CFI), requested the US Secretary of State John Kerry "pressure the government of Bangladesh to reverse its policy of arresting atheist bloggers who were critical to religion." They sent a letter to Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Suzan Johnson Cook "to do all they can to raise public awareness of this situation." Other influential organisations such as the Free Society Institute of South Africa, Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, Global Voice Advocacy, and several other bodies also called for the immediate release of the Bangladeshi bloggers and appealed to several foreign authorities to press Bangladesh on the issue.^[7]
Worldwide protest and demonstrations were held on 25 April and 2 May 2013, to put pressure on the Bangladeshi government to free the arrested bloggers. Several humanist groups (including CFU, CFI-Canada, the British Humanist Association, American Atheists, Secular Coalition for America, and Freethinkers of University of Missouri's campus) took part in cities the US, Canada, the UK, and Bangladesh.^[18] Many writers, activists, and prominent intellectuals around the world including Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin, Hemant Mehta, Maryam Namazie, PZ Myers, Avijit Roy, Anu Muhammad, Ajoy Roy, Qayyum Chowdhury, Ramendu Majumdar, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal publicly expressed their solidarity with the arrested bloggers.^[18] Three of the arrested bloggers eventually were released on bail,^[19] however the court denied bail for Asif Mohiuddin and he was sent to prison on 2 June 2013.^[20] He was released after three months but still faces charges. Now he lives in Berlin, Germany.^[21][22]

See also

• 2013 Bengali blog blackout
• Avijit Roy
• Worldwide Protests for Free Expression in Bangladesh
• Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh

References

1. Jump up ^ "Bangladesh gags award-winning blogger". Deutsche Welle. 25 May 2013. 
2. Jump up ^ "BLOGGER GRANTED BAIL ON HEALTH GROUNDS". Reporters without Borders. 7 Aug 2013. 
3. Jump up ^ "'I have to help the people of Bangladesh'". Deutsche Welle. 22 Apr 2014. 
4. Jump up ^ Staff correspondent (2 April 2013). "4 held over attempt to kill blogger". The Daily Star. Retrieved 27 February 2015. 
5. Jump up ^ "'Militant atheist' blogger stabbed in Bangladesh". Hindustan Times. 15 January 2013. 
6. Jump up ^ "Asif Mohiuddin - 100 Information Heroes". Reporters Without Borders. 
7. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Avijit Roy (1 May 2013). "No Flag Large Enough to Cover the Shame - Guest Post from Dr. Avijit Roy". Center for Inquiry. 
8. Jump up ^ Associated Press (6 Apr 2013). "Hardline Muslims rally in Bangladesh amid shutdown". USA Today. 
9. Jump up ^ Farid Ahmed (8 April 2013). "Bangladesh Islamists rally for blasphemy law". CNN. 
10. Jump up ^ Asif Mohiuddin. "God, Almighty only in name but impotent in reality (transl)". somewhereinblog.net.  The current blog page reads: "blog has been withdrawn or cancelled for violating terms and conditions" (transl.)
11. Jump up ^ "Blogger Asif Mohiuddin arrested over "blasphemous" blog posts". Reporters Without Borders. 3 April 2013. 
12. Jump up ^ Emran Hossain (4 March 2013). "Bangladesh Arrests 'Atheist Bloggers,' Cracking Down on Critics". The Huffington Post. 
13. Jump up ^ "Bangladesh: Crackdown on Bloggers, Editors Escalates". Human Rights Watch. 15 April 2013. 
14. Jump up ^ "Arrests of "atheist bloggers" shows Bangladesh authorities are walking into a trap set by fundamentalists". http://iheu.org. 4 April 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2013. 
15. Jump up ^ "Call to action: Defend the bloggers of Bangladesh". http://iheu.org. 9 April 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2013. 
16. Jump up ^ "A Statement from Mukto-Mona: Bangladesh government squishing freedom of speech by arresting and harassing young bloggers inside the country". http://mukto-mona.com. 3 April 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2013. 
17. Jump up ^ "Bangladesh: writers at risk of torture". Amnesty International. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2013. 
18. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Avijit Roy (8 May 2013). "The Struggle of Bangladeshi Bloggers". http://www.skeptic.com. Retrieved 6 June 2013. 
19. Jump up ^ "Two bloggers get bail". http://bdnews24.com. 12 May 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2013. 
20. Jump up ^ "Blogger Moshiur granted bail, Asif was denied bail and sent to jail". http://dhakatribune.com. 2 June 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2013. 
21. Jump up ^ "Bangladesh court indicts 4 bloggers for allegedly posting derogatory comments about Islam". Fox News Channel. 8 September 2013. 
22. Jump up ^ "4 bloggers charged". Bdnews24.com. 8 September 2013. 

     

Widow of slain U.S.-Bangladeshi blogger lashes out at Dhaka

Exclusive: Widow of slain U.S.-Bangladeshi blogger lashes out at Dhaka

By John Shiffman

On a recent evening in a Midwestern U.S. city, a middle-aged woman with bandaged arms and a missing thumb entered a crowded restaurant. Nearby, children colored with crayons. Waiters rushed by.The maimed woman, Rafida Ahmed, scanned the room nervously. The Atlanta financial executive has been hiding since Islamic militants wielding machetes attacked her on Feb. 26 in her native Bangladesh.
During the assault, her husband – the Bangladeshi-American secular activist and blogger Avijit Roy – was hacked to death. Ahmed sustained four head wounds, and her left thumb was sliced off. On May 3, the Indian-born head of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent claimed responsibility for a string attacks in Bangladesh and Pakistan, including Roy's.
The murder of Roy, an atheist who published a popular and provocative blog, marks an escalation by Islamist militants for control of Bangladesh. Religious fundamentalists are competing daily with secular government officials for power in the majority-Muslim country, one of the world’s largest and poorest democracies.
In her first extensive interview since the attack, Ahmed criticized the Bangladeshi government for not responding more aggressively to her husband’s slaying.
“This was well planned, choreographed – a global act of terrorism,” she said. “But what almost bothers me more is that no one from the Bangladesh government has reached out to me. It’s as if I don’t exist, and they are afraid of the extremists. Is Bangladesh going to be the next Pakistan or Afghanistan?”

“WALKING A FINE LINE”
In an interview, Sajeeb Wazed, the son of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said his mother offered private condolences to Roy’s father. But the political situation in Bangladesh is too volatile for her to comment publicly, he said. Roy was an avowed atheist; the book he was promoting when he was killed is titled “The Virus of Faith.”
“We are walking a fine line here,” said Wazed, an informal consultant for the ruling party, the Awami League. “We don’t want to be seen as atheists. It doesn’t change our core beliefs. We believe in secularism,” he said. “But given that our opposition party plays that religion card against us relentlessly, we can’t come out strongly for him. It’s about perception, not about reality.”
A spokesman at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington said he did not know why no one from his government had yet to contact Ahmed, who, like her late husband, is a dual Bangladeshi-U.S. citizen.
“We are shocked at the killing of Avijit Roy and have taken all measures to find the culprits responsible for this heinous act,” said spokesman Shamim Ahmad. “Bangladesh is committed to fighting and ending extremism in all its forms.”
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation deployed agents to Dhaka and is working with Bangladesh authorities, an FBI spokeswoman said. Agents met most recently with Ahmed in the United States on Friday, Ahmed said.
Wazed said Roy’s death came during a three-month period when 160 people died in bus bombings in Dhaka, and shortly before explosions near the prime minister’s motorcade. Wazed blamed political opponents who, he said, seek to destabilize his mother’s government.
“To us, Avijit Roy is no different than the 160 others that have been killed,” he said. “We want to bring all the killers to justice. I understand why (his wife) is upset. My mother has been targeted by these same fundamentalists."

FREE THINKER
Well known in his native Bangladesh, Roy was largely anonymous in his suburban Atlanta neighborhood, where the couple lived since 2006.
By day, he worked as a Verizon software engineer. At night, he was a prolific writer, emerging as a leading critic of religious extremism in Bangladesh. 
Roy, 43, wrote eight books and moderated a blog called Mukto-Mona (Free Thinker). To some, he was a provocative atheist, but his blog also reflected a strong belief in the value of civil debate, said his stepdaughter, Trisha Ahmed, 18.
“My dad was building a community of secularists who thought rationally,” she said. “He wanted to start a conversation and see where it would go."
Roy was a young child during the formative years that followed Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The war had roots in colonialism and religion. Although Pakistan and Bangladesh shared neither a border nor common language, they had been joined as one in 1947, as the British departed the subcontinent. The demarcation was largely based on one factor: most who lived in Pakistan and Bangladesh were Muslim.
Bangladesh was founded as a secular country, but U.S. and Bangladesh officials said the Islamic fundamentalist influence began to increase in the 1990s as wealthy Arabs began building hundreds of religious schools. The same officials say militant influence also increased as waves of Bangladeshis who had moved to the Persian Gulf as laborers returned home with stricter Muslim views.
Roy’s activism began around 2000, after he moved to Singapore for graduate school. He moderated a Yahoo email group and the blog followed, said Bangladeshi-British activist Rayan Rashid.
“It was a pioneering group, quite popular, long before Facebook and Twitter,” said Rashid. “He was patient, witty, elegant and mature in dealing with dissidents. His goal was to win them over.”

A THREAT
In 2002, while in Singapore, Roy noticed a blog post from a U.S. woman who wrote of religion, “I don’t understand how people can believe in fairy tales.” It was Rafida Ahmed, who would become his wife.
“A lot of people attacked me online for that post,” she recalled. “I was a tech manager in Atlanta at the time, a single mom. I was intimidated and didn’t respond. The next day, someone named Avijit Roy is defending me.”
They dated long distance for years, and he reluctantly moved from Singapore to Atlanta in 2006: Ahmed would not leave the United States until her daughter completed high school. Roy held a doctorate in biomedical research, but found it easier to get a lucrative job and a U.S. visa as a software architect, his wife said.
After Trisha Ahmed was in college, the couple, by then married and U.S. citizens, decided to visit Dhaka. The two departed in mid-February.
“We knew that anything can happen in a country like that, and we took precautions,” Ahmed said. “There was only one threat against him but we didn’t take it seriously. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have gone.”

FINAL DAYS
Roy was a star attraction at the book fair. On a tranquil morning before his murder, he outlined a book he planned to write with Ahmed, and took her on a rickshaw tour of his childhood neighborhood. He exchanged Facebook messages with his stepdaughter, sharing in her excitement at attending a U.S. college lecture by the feminist Gloria Steinem.
“We were really, really happy,” said Ahmed, who had edited her husband’s books in Atlanta, but had not seen his influence first-hand in Bangladesh. “He had finally gotten to show me – in Bangladesh – how and why his work was so important.”
Violence against secularists continues. On March 30, a Roy supporter, Washiqur Rahman, was hacked to death hacked in Dhaka by religious extremists.
After Roy’s murder, a Dhaka man who had posted online threats was detained but not charged. Dhaka police have said they believe the Roy and Rahman murders were committed by the militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team.
“This looks much scarier than we originally thought,” Ahmed said.

(Edited by Michael Williams and Bill Tarrant)

Bangladesh: Authorities must deliver justice as third blogger is hacked to death

Bangladesh: Authorities must deliver justice as third blogger is hacked to death

 

The Bangladeshi authorities must deliver justice over the shocking murder of the secularist Bangladeshi blogger Bijoy Das – the third such killing this year – if they wish to avert a looming crisis for freedom of expression in the country, said Amnesty International.

This latest attack again demonstrates Bangladesh’s secular bloggers are being targeted in a vicious campaign which the authorities are unable or unwilling to prevent.

“Some of these killings have been claimed by extremists – but they have been facilitated by the official failure to prosecute anyone responsible,” says Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Bangladesh Researcher. “The murder of Bijoy Das again shows that Bangladesh is not doing enough to protect critics of religious intolerance, or to prosecute their attackers.”

 

The prevalent impunity for all these cases continues to send a message that such attacks are tolerated by the authorities. Ending impunity and ensuring protection for those at risk must be a priority for the Bangladeshi authorities.

Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Bangladesh Researcher

“The prevalent impunity for all these cases continues to send a message that such attacks are tolerated by the authorities. Ending impunity and ensuring protection for those at risk must be a priority for the Bangladeshi authorities.”

Masked attackers carrying machetes stopped Bijoy Das as he travelled to work in the city of Sylhet, police say. They struck him on the head and body and reportedly fled into the crowds.

Bijoy Das was taken to hospital, where he was declared dead. The 33-year-old bank employee had been a contributor to Mukto Mona, a website once moderated by Avijit Roy, a prominent blogger who was hacked to death on a Dhaka street earlier this year.

Bijoy Das had won Mukto Mona’s annual award in 2006 for “spreading secular and humanist ideals and messages”. Friends of the blogger say he had criticized violence in the name of religion, and promoted science and rationalism.

While the motive for Bijoy Das’s murder is not yet clear, the manner of his death mirrors that of other bloggers who spoke out against extremism.

Civil society activists say radical Islamist groups have prepared a hit-list that includes many secularist writers, bloggers and journalists. The names of the three bloggers killed this year were reportedly on that list. No one has been successfully prosecuted over the attacks.

A blogger known for his intolerance of secular views was arrested over the 25 February 2015 killing of Avijit Roy, a Bangladesh-born US citizen. Weeks later, on 30 March, another secular blogger, Washiqur Rahman, was killed in a similar attack. Two students at an Islamic seminary were arrested over that murder.

“The authorities must ensure there is an effective investigation of all these killings leading to the identification of the suspected perpetrators, who should be prosecuted in fair trials without resort to the death penalty,” says Abbas Faiz. “Each of these murders is also an attack on freedom of expression and freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief.”

“A failure by the authorities to take all possible steps to ensure the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice, and to ensure protection for those at risk, would send an implicit message that they tolerate such attacks.”