Attackers armed with machetes killed a blogger in Bangladesh on Friday, the fourth such killing of an online critic of religious extremism in six months, prompting calls by human rights groups for a swift and thorough investigation.
Niloy Chatterjee, 40, an advocate of secularism, was killed in his flat in the capital Dhaka, said police official Mustafizur Rahman.
Chatterjee, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, was a critic of religious extremism that led to bombings in mosques and the killing of civilians.
Chatterjee was also one of hundreds of bloggers driving a movement demanding the death penalty for Islamist leaders accused of atrocities in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence.
The Indian-born head of al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent claimed responsibility in May for a series of attacks in Bangladesh and Pakistan, including Roy’s. The United States said it was unable to confirm the claim. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened an inquiry into war crimes in 2010.
In February, machete-wielding assailants killed a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin and critic of religious militancy, Avijit Roy, and seriously injured his wife and fellow blogger, Rafida Bonya Ahmed, after they left a book fair.
On March 30, Washiqur Rahman, another secular blogger who aired his outrage over Roy’s death on social media, was killed in a similar fashion. Another secular blogger, Ananta Bijoy Das, was hacked to death on May 12.
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