An orgy of killing in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is in a spell of killing of atheists, humanists, and free-thinkers for upholding secularist views by the fundamentalist Islamists in the name of religion. All of these victims were secularists, as they aspired to see a free democratic society with a clear separation of religion – whatever that religion could be – from the functioning of the state. Religion has its place and it should not spill over to politics, economics, and other stately activities. These are the views the notorious Jamaat-e-Islam and its multitude of sister organisations loath to see and are prepared to exterminate by vicious murder.

This year alone four high profile secularists have not brutally murdered by the Islamists and as many as ten bloggers were murdered over the past 29 months. A few days ago, Niladri Chattopadhyay Niloy had been hacked to death in his own home, an apartment at Khilgoan in Dhaka.

His crime was that he was a secularist blogger, who asked for punishment of the war criminals during the liberation war period. The killers, five in number, entered into his house at mid-day, when most of the adults in surrounding apartments had gone out to mosques for Friday prayer.

They shouted 'Naraey Taqbir' and started hacking him, while his wife had been pushed in to the balcony. The Jamaat-e-Islam condemned the killing of 'Niloy Hossain'. Who is this 'Niloy Hossain' whose killing Jamaat condemns, but not of 'Niladri Niloy'? How could this inhuman, barbaric organisation stoop so low as to insult the memory of the dead by distorting his name and still call itself a religious organisation?

Another blogger in Sylhet by the name Ananta Bijoy Das was killed by the Islamists on May 12, 2015. As he was going to work in the morning, he was chased by two or three thugs with machetes and then hacked to death in full view of the public.

On March 30, 2015 yet another blogger by the name Oyasiqur Rahman Babu was hacked to death in Tajgoan area of Dhaka city as he was going to his office. The assailants struck him with machete from behind and then hacked him to death in broad daylight on the street. One of the assailants was caught red-handed by the public and was handed over to the police. The assailant was taken to the police station and confessed that he knew nothing about his victim's activities. He was simply asked by his religious leader, the 'hujur', to kill the man by the name Oyasiqur Rahman Babu. However, instead of producing the assailant to courts for prosecution, the police later announced that the assailant had escaped from police custody!

While all of the above victims were Bangladeshi nationals, the first victim of this year, Dr Avijit Roy, was an American of Bangladeshi descent. He along with his wife came to Dhaka on 17 February to launch his latest book called 'The Virus of Faith' at the Book Fair in Bangla Academy. He was murdered on the footpath in front of the Teachers Students Centre (TSC) of Dhaka University.

Although it was just after dark, the whole area was very well lit and the area had as many as three layers of police cordon to make it secure for the public. Three assailants attacked him and his wife with machetes, killed Avijit and injured his wife and then quietly slipped away under the nose of policemen, who were no more than 10 feet away!

The first such barbarous deed took place more than ten years ago when Prof. Humayan Azad was killed on February 27, 2004 for his secular views. Since then, bloggers like Asif Mahiuddin (January 15, 2013), Ahmed Rajib Haider (February 15, 2013) and Arif Raihan Dip (April 9, 2013) had been killed. The blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was killed near his house in Mirpur in Dhaka as he was returning home after work. The thugs were waiting for him at the top of the lane. His crime was that he participated in the 'Ganajagaran Mancha' demonstration demanding proper punishment for those who committed crimes during the liberation war.

But the irony of the whole episode is that not a single person out of all these killings has been apprehended and produced to courts for conviction. Even when an assailant was caught red-handed by the public and handed over to the police, the police couldn't keep him in custody. What a joke.

What do all of these incidents indicate? Does it not indicate undeniably that the government acquiesced to these murders or is at least turning a blind eye? Following Avijit's death, FBI came to Bangladesh for the investigation of one of their citizens. But they left within a matter of days as they did not get proper cooperation from local security agents.

The modality the government follows immediately after a murder is that one or more ministers make some strident calls and issue statements condemning such barbarous incidents and proclaim that such things will not be allowed in the country. The reporters out of their enthusiasm and conscience report the incident for a few days in national newspapers and then progressively taper down their coverage as public uproar subsides and the whole thing goes into oblivion. This pattern had been followed, not once or twice, but in all cases.

The Prime Minister's son, Sajeeb Wazed, himself an American working in Bangladesh as an IT Consultant, said that the government cannot be seen to side with an atheist after Avijit's murder.

What this implies is that this government makes the judgement, after a murder is committed, on whether it would be beneficial for the party to pursue the case or not. If it is beneficial, it would be followed; otherwise not. When a member of a minority group is killed, the government washes its hands off with similar excuses. The administration is then corruptly running the country for party interests only!

When the government said that it cannot side with the atheists, it offered a licence to the fanatics to continue killing people as long as the victim can be branded as an atheist. The follow-up of Avijit's murder supports such contentions. The Islamist thugs kept killing people knowing very well that they would not be pursued and, indeed, they have the blessing of the ruling party. Four more murders have been committed since Avijit's killing, all due to the acquiescence of the government.

It is simply incredible that in a country of age old traditions of decency, humanity, and culture and a functioning government, as many as ten murders have been committed by religious thugs and not a single case has been solved, nor a single person apprehended. Does it not reflect on government's gross negligence and incompetence, or worse, acquiescence?

Dr. A Rahman is an author and a columnist.