Mourners ask govt, people to be alert against militancy

People have paid their last respects to Avijit Roy at Aparajeyo Bangla on the Dhaka University campus where the writer and blogger spent his childhood.

Avijit was hacked on the footpath next to the Suhrawardy Udyan, a few metres away from the tightly secured entrance of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair and Shahbagh Police Station on Feb 26.
 
He later died at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
 
Avijit’s friends, relatives, well-wishers and ordinary people, who gathered at Aparajeyo Bangla with flowers on Sunday, vented their resentment and asked the government to move hard against militancy and communalism.
 
Avijit’s father Prof Ajay Roy said, “I’m saying as a father who lost his son, please keep up this pressure on the government to identify the killers and unearth the motive of the murder.”
 
“People are considering this murder a weakness of the government,” he added.
 
An engineer by training, Roy was the founder of the popular blog Mukto-Mona (Free Mind). Noted for his works against communalism, he was a regular columnist of bdnews24.com.
 
He was living in the United States and came to Bangladesh to attend the book fair.
 
Avijit’s wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonya was also hacked while returning from the fair.
 
Badly injured, she is being treated at the Square Hospital.
 
The writer’s friends, relatives, well-wishers, Dhaka University teachers and students, and members of several organisations gathered at Aparajeyo Bangla on Sunday morning before his body was taken there.

After paying tributes to the blogger, a friend of Avijit’s father, writer-journalist Shahriar Kabir, expressed his grudge over the government’s ‘failure’ to ensure safety of the blogger.

“Threats were meted out to Avijit. We want to ask the government why security was not ensured for him after he returned home,” he said.

Kabir blamed militants for the murder and feared Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina might be killed by them.

“Sheikh Hasina is on the top of their (hit) list. Mukto-Mona bloggers and I follow her in the list. If they (militants) are not identified, Sheikh Hasina will be murdered one day,” he said.

Around a dozen books by Avijit, mostly about science, philosophy and materialism, have so far been published. He was regularly threatened by religious fanatics for his writing.

Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, publisher of most of the blogger’s books, said, “The books and write-ups of Avijit will guide the next generations to build a non-communal country. We’ll carry on regardless of the threats we face.”

Tutul, owner of publication house Suddhaswar, had also received threats two days after Avijit was murdered.

Jagannath University Vice-Chancellor Prof Mizanur Rahman said, “Murders of writers Humayun Azad and Avijit are linked.”

“Hanging of one or two of the killers won’t be any solution to the problem. We have to face this phenomenon socially,” he added.

The United Nations has condemned the attack on Avijit and demanded a fast trial of the killers.

The United Sates has termed the incident as ‘a cowardly assault’ and offered assistance in the investigation.

Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali told some diplomats on Sunday that the US offer has been accepted.

Film director and former president of Sammilito Sanskritic Jote Nasiruddin Yusuf Bacchu said the killers enjoy Jamaat-e-Islami's patronage.

Drama personality Ramendu Majumder said the murder of Avijit was ‘not an attack only on free thought, but also on the entire Bangladesh’.

“Police have said they ensured a three-tier security (in and around the book fair). How this incident happened amid that? I don’t understand how people watched this matter standing,” he said.

He warned that the ‘the people of free thought’ would be extinct unless the government and general people stood against militant activities.

Cultural personality Syed Hasan Imam said, “The people who are close to the spirit of the Liberation War are being identified and killed. It will be no exaggeration if what is happening in Bangladesh is called barbarism.”

“The independence will be at stake unless militancy and terrorism are prevented,” he added.

Gonoforum chief Dr Kamal Hossain asked why people were being subject to murders for publishing books.

National University Vice-Chancellor Harun-or-Rashid said Avijit’s murder proved the failure of ‘traditional law-enforcement agencies and administration’ in tackling militant activities.

He suggested formation of a trained ‘special force’ to combat militancy.

Prof Muntasir Mamun, poet Mohammad Samad, CPB Adviser Monjurul Ahsan Khan, BaSaD General Secretary Khalequzzaman, and different organisations including Dhaka University Teachers Association, Bangladesh Chhatra League, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Bangladesh Chhatra Federation, Chhatra Sangram Parishad, Ganajagaran Mancha, Khelaghar, Group Theature Federation placed wreaths the writer’s coffin.