Condemning the murder of Bangaldeshi writer Avijit Roy, author Taslima Nasreen said on Friday that his criticism of all kinds of “religious fundamentalism” may have caused the attack. Roy, the founder of a popular blog-site, Mukto-Mona (Free Mind) that advocated liberal and secular writings, was hacked to death by miscreants on Thursday when he was returning from a book fair with his wife.
“It was Avijit’s criticism of all kinds of religious fundamentalism including Islamic fundamentalism that may have been the cause behind the murder,”Ms. Nasreen, who knew Mr. Roy for about two decades, told TheHindu. She also said that such attacks on writers “is nothing new” in Bangladesh.
“There is no freedom of speech in Bangladesh. Such murders of writers had taken place there before,” she added. In 2013, another blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider who advocated secularism, was allegedly murdered by extremist elements. In 2004 writer Humayun Azad was attacked near the Dhaka University campus, during the book fair. He later died mysteriously in his apartment in Germany.
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Noted Bengali film director Gautam Ghosh, who directed and co-produced films on Bangladesh, described the incident as “heinous.”
“The incident indicates that all kinds of tolerance, whether religious or political, were decreasing. Such attacks are attempts to muzzle the voice of free thinkers,” he said. The social media in Bengal and across the world condemned the incident.
Ganamancha, a platform of leftist activists, claimed that the “religious fundamentalists” in Bangladesh carried out the attack. “Rationalist activities are increasingly coming under attack in the South-Asian sub-continent as was seen in the assassination of Govind Panasare (senior Communist Party of India leader) and Narendra Dabholkar (noted rationalist) by extremists in India,” said a statement issued by Ganamancha.
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