Another Blogger Killed in Bangladesh

On Monday, April 10, assailants used machetes to kill another blogger in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. This is the second attack in the past five weeks on a critic of religious extremism in the Islamic country of Bangladesh. According to Reuters, a police official in Bangladesh stated that Wathiq Rahman, a secular blogger, was targeted by religious students in a busy street in central Dhaka on Monday morning. Humayan Kabir, a police official in Bangladesh, told Reuters that police forces arrested two attackers who were attempting to flee and seized three machetes from them. In recent years, religious extremists in Bangladesh have targeted secular writers. Meanwhile, the government is trying to increase pressure on extremist Islamist groups that aim to establish a Sharia-based government in Bangladesh. Last month, Avijit Roy, another secular blogger residing in the U.S., was killed with a machete while returning home from a book fair in Dhaka. His wife, Rafida Bonya Ahmed, was also injured in the head and lost a finger. Bonya Ahmed attributed her husband's murder to religious fanatics in February and accused the police of failing to prevent her husband's killing. Mohammad Habibur Rahman, the secretary of the Bangladesh Police Association and chief inspector of Dhaka police, stated that police forces have been unjustly criticized in this matter. He said there are many instances where police forces have acted to save lives and risked their own in the process. The government of Bangladesh and the main opposition party have been in serious conflict for several months, creating a deep sense of insecurity in the country. Amnesty International, in a statement released on Monday, declared that the horrific murder of a blogger today should serve as a wake-up call for authorities and remind them of the need to create a safe environment for journalists and activists to express their opinions. Previously, in 2013, Ahmed Rajab Haider, a Bangladeshi blogger, was murdered near his home in Dhaka after leading a protest demanding the harshest punishment for Islamist leaders accused of war crimes during the Bangladesh Liberation War. In 2014, secular writer and Dhaka University professor Humayun Azad was attacked by militants while returning home from the Dhaka book fair. He died in Germany while receiving treatment. Reporters Without Borders ranked Bangladesh 146th out of 180 countries in its press freedom index last year.