Avijit murdered by extremists: Family

The family of writer-blogger Avijit Roy suspect Islamist radicals were behind his murder.

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His father Ajay Roy, a noted physicist, filed a case of murder with Shahbagh police on Friday .

Shahbagh police Sub-Inspector (SI) Sohel Rana said the case did not name anyone and was filed against unidentified assailants. 

“Extremists are behind my son’s murder and Jamaat (-e-Islami) has backed them,” Ajay Roy told journalists after filing the case. 

He also hoped that the government will bring the murderers to justice.

A bio-engineer and a naturalised US citizen, writer Avijit Roy was hacked to death near the TSC intersection at Dhaka University on Thursday.

His wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed Banna was seriously injured as she tried to defend Avijit. 

Religious radicals have been threatening Avijit for his active campaign against Islamist extremism. 

He was a regular bdnews24.com columnist and the founder of the popular blog, Mukto-mona.

The police are yet to make any breakthrough in the case. No one has been arrested or detained. Two machetes were recovered from the crime scene. 

Thursday’s attack bore a striking similarity to the one on legendary writer Humayun Azad in February 2004.

Azad was also returning 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 in Dhaka’s Mirpur in February 2013.

That was barely 10 days after the secular platform Ganajagaran Mancha started its Shahbagh-based agitation, demanding capital punishment for war criminals and a ban on communal parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Islamist radicals had attacked other secular bloggers like Ashraful Alam and Asif Mohiuddin after the Shahbagh agitation polarised opinions in Bangladesh.

Islamist blogger Farabi Shafiur Rahman had allegedly threatened Avijit Roy with death once he returned home. 

A screenshot of a Feb 9 post on Farabi’s Facebook timeline is still circulating on the Internet.

In that post , he is seen telling one Mannan Rahi that Avijit Roy cannot be killed now since he is in US, but he will be killed once he is back to Bangladesh.  

Farabi has also been demanding that Rokomari.com, an online shopping portal, stop selling Avijit Roy's books.

Police had arrested Farabi in connection with Rajib Haider’s murder on charges of incitement, but he managed to secure bail .

A twitter account in the name of Ansar Bangla 7 have described the murder of Avijit Roy as an achievement.

A series of tweets  since the murder described it  as a punishment for Avijit's "crime against Islam". 

The first tweet soon after the incident read “Allahu Akbar..A great success today here in #Bangladesh. Target is Down -:- here in #Dhaka.” 

The next tweets termed Avijit  as one of their ‘Top Target’ for the last 3-4 years. 

“The target was a US citizen, used to live in US for the fear of Muslims. just 5/6 days ago he had come to Dhaka to attend Bookfairl>LoL .Gone”

Another tweet said, “Anti-Islamic blogger US-Bengali citizen Avijit Roy is assassinated in capital #Dhaka due to his crime against #Islam.”

The account also boasts “YES !! We can .. A HeadShot A Day Keeps The Infidel Away.” 

It also has a link to Avijit’s facebook page: “Target posted his last facebook status 5 hours ago & killed just 2 hours ago… >>>

https://www.facebook.com/Avijit.Roy.MuktoMona

 …”

Another tweet said, “May be it's Avijit Roy's bloody wife with Husband's Head.#Beheaded. He was a top Target 4 last 3/4 years.” A picture of Bonna trying to pull Avijit up from the pavement was posted along with this tweet.