Bangladesh: Blogger hacked to death
Event- Country
- Bangladesh
- Initial Date
- Mar 30, 2015
- Event Description
Activists are expressing outrage in the wake of the second brutal murder of a blogger in Bangladesh in recent weeks. Monday morning, blogger Oyasiqur Rahman was attacked by three men with large knives in the streets near his Dhaka home. Police arrested two suspects at the scene, identified as students at two separate madrassas - or religious schools. Police are hunting a third man who escaped. Authorities said the two arrestees confessed to killing Rahman because of his religious writings. Rahman, who worked in a travel agency, was not professional journalist, but he did use a variety of pseudonyms to post comments and articles by other writers critical of religious extremism. On Facebook, he used the name Oyasiqur Babu, and he had recently changed his profile picture to the hashtag #Iamavijit, in honor of prominent Bangladeshi-American writer and blogger Avijit Roy, an atheist who, as RePRESSed earlier reported, was killed in a similar attack in late February. police investigation, the UN is concerned that this brutal murder contributes to a reduction in the freedom of expression and opinion in the country," Watkins said in an online statement. The Committee to Protect Journalists is callling on the government of Bangladesh to conduct a thorough and timely investigation into this and other attacks, in order to protect the country's journalists against future attacks. Bangladesh has seen a spate of such attacks in recent years, almost all of them over religious issues. In January 2013, blogger Asif Mohiuddin, who also criticized religious fundamentalism, was stabbed but did not die. In February 2013, blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death by members of an Islamist militant group called the Ansarullah Bengali Team. Later the same year, Islamist groups called for the execution of bloggers they said had committed blasphemy. While arrests were made after those murders, there have been no convictions. UPDATE: 9 April 2015 The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes a breakthrough in the case of a Bangladeshi blogger who was hacked to death in Dhaka last month with murder charges laid against the four men accused of killing the blogger Md Oyasiqur Rahman Babu. With two of the men still at large, the IFJ has called on the Bangladesh Police to undertake all efforts to locate the men at large - one of whom is touted to be the mastermind behind the brutal slaying on March 30. According to reports, preliminary murder charges have been lodged against Zikrullah and Ariful, who were arrested at the scene while the remaining two at large have been charged in absentia. Oyasiqur died as a result of his injuries after he was set upon by men brandishing at least three machetes as he travelled to work in Bengunbari in central Dhaka.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- Killing
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief
- Internet freedom
- Source
VOA NewsUpdate: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) http://www.ifj.org/nc/news-single-view/backpid/33/article/four-charged-for-bangladeshi-blogger-murder/)
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 23.81033200000001
Longitude: 90.41251810000001
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 30 March 2015 Oyasiqur Rahman, a Bangladeshi blogger, was attacked by three men with large knives in the streets near his Dhaka home. Rahman, who worked in a travel agency, was not professional journalist, but he did use a variety of pseudonyms to post comments and articles by other writers critical of religious extremism. Activists are expressing outrage in the wake of the second brutal murder of a blogger in Bangladesh in recent weeks. UPDATE: 9 April 2015 In early April 2015, murder charges were laid against four men accused of killing of Oyasiqur Rahman. Two of the men remain at large.