UN condemns Niloy murder, demands justice for all slain bloggers

The United Nations has condemned the killing of blogger Niladri Chatterjee Niloy and called upon the authorities to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice in a “speedy manner”.

UN Resident Coordinator Robert Watkins in a statement described the attack as “a heinous crime against yet another online activist and an attack on tolerance”.

He also called upon the authorities to investigate speedily and bring to justice the killers of all previous slain bloggers.

Unnamed assailants hacked Niloy to death inside his house in Dhaka after Friday’s Juma prayer. He was also an activist of the Ganajagaran Mancha

He is the fourth blogger to have been murdered this year.

However, police could not complete the investigation process of any of those killings.

Niloy’s three-month-old Facebook post suggested that he knew that he was a target.

He wanted to file a general diary (GD) but the police ‘advised him to leave the country as early as possible’ instead, according to that May 15 post.

The ‘Bangladesh branch’ of al-Qaeda in Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) has claimed responsibility for the Friday’s murder through an email.

However, the claim could not be verified independently.

The UN resident coordinator said police “need to take concrete measures to protect citizens”.

Watkins said “strong condemnation of these incidents from all levels of society will be important to prevent further murders”.

The UN in its earlier statement already drew attention to the “seemingly increasing intolerance towards people peacefully expressing their views on-line”.

Amnesty International also condemned the Friday’s killing in a statement and said “this spate of savage killings must end here”.