Top

Timeline of attacks on Bangladesh's secular bloggers

A court sentenced two students to death for Haider's murder in December 2015.

Dhaka: A Bangladesh court sentenced two students to death on Thursday for the 2013 murder of secular blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.

Here are some key dates in a series of similar attacks on atheist and free-thinking bloggers:

January 14, 2013 - Atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin, 31, is attacked by a group of unidentified young men with machetes in the capital Dhaka.

Mohiuddin is arrested in April 2013 along with three other secular bloggers for "hurting religious sentiments" in the Muslim-majority nation. He leaves the country for Germany.

February 15, 2013 - Secular blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, 35, who campaigned against Islamist leaders accused of war crimes, is hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers near his home in Dhaka's Pallabi neighbourhood.

A court sentences two students to death for his murder in December 2015.

February 26, 2015 - Avijit Roy, 42, an American-Bangladeshi writer and the moderator of a "free-thinking" blogging website, and his wife Rafida Ahmed are attacked just yards (metres) away from a book fair in Dhaka. Roy dies and his wife is severely wounded.

March 30, 2015 - Secular blogger Washiqur Rahman, 27, is hacked to death in broad daylight near his home in Dhaka's Tejgaon area. Two of the attackers, both students at an Islamic seminary, are arrested at the scene.

May 12, 2015 - Secular blogger Ananta Bijoy Das, 33, a banker and a founder of a group called the Science and Rationalist Council, is hacked to death near his home in northeastern city of Sylhet.

August 7, 2015 - Secular blogger Niloy Chakrabarti, 40, who wrote online under the pen name Niloy Neel, is hacked to death in his home in central Dhaka.

October 31, 2015 - Publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, 43, who published a bestselling book by murdered writer Avijit Roy, is killed at his office in a market in central Dhaka.

Timeline of attacks on Bangladesh's secular bloggers, blogger Ranadipam Basu and poet Tareq Rahim.

( Source : AFP )
Next Story