Assailants hack to death writer Avijit Roy, wife injured
Staff Correspondent, bdnews24.com
Published: 26 Feb 2015 10:35 PM BdST Updated: 27 Feb 2015 06:17 PM BdST
-
Avijit Roy's body at DMCH morgue
-
Injured Rafida Ahmed Banna
-
-
-
-
The couple was attacked on the footpath just outside the Suhrawardy Udyan when they were on their way to TSC from the Amar Ekushey Book Fair. Photo Courtesy: Tushar Kumar Banerjee
-
-
-
Unidentified assailants have hacked to death writer Avijit Roy and seriously injured his blogger wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya.
Related Stories
Police said the couple came under assault near TSC intersection at Dhaka University around 9:30pm on Thursday.
Witnesses said they were on a rickshaw returning from the Amar Ekushey Book Fair when two attackers stopped it, dragged them onto the footpath and started hacking them.
They were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared Avijit dead during an emergency surgery, its police outpost Inspector Mozzamel Haque told bdnews24.com.
DMCH casualty department’s Residential Surgeon Riaz Morshed also confirmed bdnews24.com about Avijit Roy’s death.
Islamist zealots have been threatening Avijit, a bioengineer and a naturalised US citizen, for his active campaign against Islamist radicals.
Avijit has been a regular bdnews24.com columnist and the founder of popular blog Mukto-mona.
He is the son of well-known physicist Ajay Roy who has taught at Dhaka University for a long time.
Avijit had suffered a deep gash on his head during the assault and Bonya lost a finger and suffered cut wounds.

She was still under treatment at DMCH.
Two machetes, Bonya’s severed finger and a bag that possibly belonged to the assailants were recovered from the scene, Shahbagh police Sub-Inspector Sohel Rana said.
He told bdnews24.com: “We found some old folded newspapers inside the bag along with some other things. It seems the machetes were wrapped with the newspapers.”
CID officials collected the evidence from the crime scene, he added.

Then one of them ran towards TSC and the other Suhrawardy Udyan, according to the witness.
Avijit's blogger friends say he was possibly trapped – some bloggers had invited him to a book fair event.
Police are investigating the lead to track down the culprits.
Avijit Roy is well known for his books ‘Biswaser Virus’ (Virus of Faith) and ‘Sunyo theke Mahabiswa’ (From Vacuum to the Great World).
Two of his recent titles had been launched at the ongoing Ekushey Book Fair.
His writing and blogging had evoked the ire of fanatics and he had been regularly threatened.
Thursday’s attack bore a striking similarity to the one on legendary writer Humayun Azad in February 2004.
Azad was also returning to home from the Ekushey Book Fair when he was hacked with machetes by radical militants. He later died in Germany while undergoing treatment.
Militants also hacked blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider to death in a similar attack near his home at Dhaka’s Mirpur in February 2013.
That was barely 10 days after the secular platform Ganajagaran Mancha started its Shahbagh-based agitation.
Islamist radicals had attacked other secular bloggers like Ashraful Alam and Asif Mohiuddin after the Shahbagh agitation polarised opinions in Bangladesh.
They were demanding capital punishment for war criminals and a ban on communal parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Fanatic blogger Farabi Shafiur Rahman had issued death threats demanding that Rokomari.com, an online shopping portal, stop selling books of Avijit Roy.
Police had arrested Farabi in connection with Rajib Haider’s murder, but he managed to secure bail later.
-
UNHCR chief ‘worried’ over Rohingya financing
-
Jamuna’s banks hit by erosion in Sirajganj
-
Worker jumps off bus in Ctg to escape ‘rape’
-
Bangladesh helped CVF emerge as legitimate voice: PM
-
ACC report on ex-Chief Justice Sinha due Aug 3
-
Two schoolgirls drown in Moulvibazar stream
-
Chapainawabganj also wins GI tag of Fazli mango
-
Square Pharma fire safety system ‘inadequate’
-
‘Worried’ over funding, UNHCR chief Grandi urges focus on Rohingya amid Ukraine war
-
Jamuna’s banks hit by erosion in Sirajganj as waters recede
-
After five days of unconsciousness, RMG worker says she jumped off moving bus to escape ‘rape’
-
CVF emerged as legitimate voice under Bangladesh’s leadership: Hasina
-
Slain naval engineer Hadisur’s family to get $500,000 in compensation
-
Court jails former Sonali Bank MD Humayun Kabir, 8 others for loan scams
Most Read
- Teenage gunman kills 19 children and teacher at Texas elementary school
- Texas pupils' lives shattered by shooting two days before summer break
- Slain naval engineer Hadisur’s family to get $500,000 in compensation
- High Court denies 4 North South University trustees anticipatory bail, turns them over to police
- Court jails former Sonali Bank MD Humayun Kabir, 8 others for loan scams
- Remittances rise, but analyst sees risks in policy change
- Bangladesh names its longest bridge after Padma River as it opens on Jun 25
- Bangladesh court defers report in former Chief Justice Sinha money laundering case
- BSMMU says no monkeypox case detected, warns of rumours
- Pakistan police fire teargas, baton-charge supporters of ousted PM Khan