Bangladesh must act on these brutal attacks on bloggers

We, the undersigned writers, and PEN members, come together to condemn the horrific deaths of our colleagues Ananta Bijoy Das (or Dash), Washiqur Rahman Babu and Avijit Roy, three secular bloggers who have been brutally murdered on the streets of Bangladesh in the last three months. We urge Prime Minister Hasina Wajed and her government to do all in their power to ensure that the tragic events of the last three months are not repeated, and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

A torchlit protest against the killing of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das in Dhaka
A torchlit protest against the killing of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das in Dhaka earlier this month. Photograph: Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/Barcroft Media

We were shocked and horrified by the murder of 32-year-old blogger and editor Ananta Bijoy Das, who was hacked to death on his way to work by a masked gang wielding machetes in the city of Sylhet on 12 May. Prior to his death, Das had reportedly received a number of death threats from Islamist militants, and his name had appeared in two assassination lists published in the Bangladeshi media, alongside those of other secular bloggers described as anti-Islamic and blasphemous.

Just months earlier, on 26 February, Avijit Roy, a fellow blogger and close friend of Das, was similarly killed. Roy and his wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonya, were viciously attacked by unknown assailants close to Dhaka University. Roy died soon afterwards and his wife was severely injured. A militant Islamist group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

A month later, on 29 March, blogger Washiqur Rahman Babu was murdered just 500 yards from his home in Begunbari, Dhaka. Police have claimed that the attackers targeted the 27-year-old blogger because they believed he had defamed Islam through his writings on websites, forums and social media. Two students from a madrassa (an Islamic school) have since been arrested in connection with Rahman’s killing.

At least three other writers have been attacked or murdered in Bangladesh since 2013 and, although there have been several arrests, no one has been held to account for any of these attacks. We are gravely concerned by this escalating pattern of violence against writers and journalists who are peacefully expressing their views. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right under Bangladesh’s constitution and under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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We call on the Bangladeshi authorities to swiftly and impartially investigate Das’s death as well as the murders of Roy and Babu, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice in accordance with international fair trial standards. We also demand that the authorities do all in their power to provide protection and support to bloggers and other writers at risk in Bangladesh, in accordance with Bangladesh’s obligations under national and international law.

 

Elisabeth Abendroth

Jim Aitken

Truijens Aleid

Frank Mackay Anim-Appiah

Frankie Asare-Donkoh President, Ghana PEN Centre

Margaret Atwood

Michael Augustin

Dr Hanan Awwad President, Palestine PEN

Cecilia Balc​ázar

Elke Bannach

María Cecilia Barbetta

Niels Barfoed

Shrabani Basu

Nazmi Bayrı

Ronald Bos

Marian Botsford Fraser Chair of Writers in Prison Committee, PEN International

Suzanne Brøgger

Dr Barbara Bronnen

Ricky Brown

Urvashi Butalia

Joyce Caplan

Metin Cengiz

Sudeep Chakravarty

Anne Clarke

Jennifer Clement

Jo Clifford

Anne Connolly

Daniela Dahn

Swapan Dasgupta

Rachna Davidar

Aline Davidoff President, PEN Mexico

Alexis de Roode

Siddharta Deb

Job Degenaar

Antonio Della Rocca President, PEN Trieste

Renan Demirkan

Meghnad Desai

Faisal Devji

Dr Mathias Schreiber

Dr Burkhart Veigel

Suzanne Egerton

John Elliott

Peter Englund

Haydar Ergülen

Roberto Fabris

Moris Farhi

Fahimeh Farsaie

Charles Foran

Öyvind Foss

Maureen Freely President, English PEN

Uwe Friesel

Jostein Gaarder

Meenakshi Ganguly

Nina George

Amitav Ghosh

Jo Glanville Director, English PEN

Brigitte C Gotthold

Fiona Graham

Gloria Guardia

Michael Guggenheimer

Apar Gupta

Daniel Hahn

Kaiser Haq

Josef Haslinger President, German PEN

Gert Heidenreich

Christoph Hein

Hallgrímur Helgason

Werner Holzer

Jules Horne

Iman Humaydan

Khademul Islam Member, Bangladesh PEN

Anjali Joseph

Wim Jurg

Sirpa Kähkönen President, Finnish PEN

Raghu Karnad

Lucina Kathmann

Jan Kemp

Andrej Khadanovich President, Belarusian PEN

Charlie King

Tanja Kinkel

Karl Ove Knausgaard

Sibylle Knauss

Christoph König

Anja Kovacs

Hari Kunzru

Ola Larsmo President, Swedish PEN

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman

Joan Lingard

Chiara Macconi

Kona Macphee

Rishi Majumder

Emile Martel President, Quebec PEN

Yann Martel

Christine McKenzie President, PEN Melbourne

Kyle Mewburn President, PEN NZ

Alison Miller

Sam Miller

Denise Mina

Rohinton Mistry

Petra Morsbach

Lina Morselli

Neel Mukherjee

Ayten Mutlu

Maureen Myant

Vayoo Naidu

Hege Newth Nouri

William Nygaar President, Norwegian PEN

Harry Oberländer

Hans-Christian Oeser

Vida Ognjenovic

Per Øhrgaard President, Danish PEN

Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir

Zeynep Oral President, PEN Turkey

Margie Orford President, PEN South Africa

Mete Özel

Kaiser ÖzHun

Ra Page Founder, Comma Press

Peter Parker

Per Petterson

Tom Pow

Lutz Götze

Gabriele Pommerin-Götze

Christoph Lindenmeyer

Jean Rafferty

Anita Raghawan

Ashis Ray

Monika Rinck

Judith Rodriguez

Thomas Rothschild

Nilanjana Roy

Anuradha Roy

Elisabeth Ruge

Salman Rushdie

Gita Sahgal

Minoli Salgado

Alejandro Sánchez-Aizcorbe

Ulrike Sandig

Philippe Sands QC

Ashwin Sanghi

Rajdeep Sardesai

Ayse Sarisayan

Carole Satyamurthy

John Ralston Saul President, PEN International

Samantha Schnee

Christa Schuenke

Andrew Sclater

Sjón President, Icelandic PEN

Morelle Smith

Claire Squires

Elizabeth Starcevic

Leslie Stevenson

Liam Stewart

Klaus Theweleit

Annika Thor

Elsa Tió

Pragya Tiwari

Colm Tóibín

Carles Torner Director, PEN Internatioal

Salil Tripathi

Cynthia Troup

Aleid Truijens

Tina Uebel

Linn Ullmann

Manon Uphoff President, PEN Netherlands

Amir Valle Ojeda

Karthika VK

Martin A Völker

Gabriele von Arnim

Catherine Vuylsteke

Per Wästberg

Harry Watson

Herbert Wiesner

Les Wilson

Yazici Yasemin

Halim Yazıcı

Çetin Yiğenoğlu

Arnold Zable

Atiya Zaidi

-Courtesy: The guardian


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