Another free thinker murdered
The Daily Star (Bangladesh), May 12, 2015

Blogger and an organiser of local Gonojagoron Mancha, Ananta Bijoy Das, was killed in Sylhet this morning in continuation of attack on free thinkers of the society.

The murder comes in persistence of the recent killings of free thinkers Avijit Roy and Oyashiqur Rahman earlier this year – which have been blamed on fanatics.

Ananta Bijoy was killed at Subid Bazar area in Sylhet city around 9:00am this morning, Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kamrul Hasan told The Daily Star.

Four assailants intercepted him, chased him down and stabbed him indiscriminately all over, a Gonojagoron Mancha activist sought anonymity to tell our Moulvibazar correspondent.

“Ananta died on the spot,” he said. “Ananta was an organiser of local progressive publication outlet Jukti (logic) and a relentless writer on science.”

Ananta, 31, was son of Rabindra Kumar Das at Subid Bazar area and an employee of Jauwa branch Pubali Bank Limited in Sunamganj, local Mancha spokesperson Debashis Debu said. “He was also actively involved with the politics of Bangladesh Chhatra Union.”

Ananta Bijoy was also a writer in the Muktomona blog site, founded by slain writer Avijit Roy – who was murdered two and half months ago after he came home from abroad.

Threatened with death multiple times before, blogger and writer Avijit Roy was brutally hacked dead at Dhaka University premises on the night of February 26, days after he came back to the country.

He and his wife Rafida Ahmed Banna were hacked with machetes from the rear near TSC after they got out from Ekushey book fair allegedly under the nose of law enforcers. Banna survived.

Police are yet to make a headway in this case but al-Qaeda unit of the Indian subcontinent claimed responsibility of the killing in a video message.

Barely a month after the killing, blogger Oyasiqur Rahman was hacked to death in broad daylight on March 30. Two attackers caught red handed confessed their involvement and that of others.

Free thinkers have been repeatedly targeted by extremist groups throughout Bangladesh and it appears that the trend set in the past on handling such issues is discouraging.

Victims of those attacks were in the likes of poet Shamsur Rahman, writer and intellectual Humayun Azad, bloggers Asif Mohiuddin and the slain Rajib Haider.