Avijit Roy’s wife, demanding justice, has said officers ‘stood close by and did not act’ while she and her husband were brutally attacked

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Atheist blogger Avijit Roy 'was not just a person … he was a movement' Read more

A government adviser on Saturday asked the chief of Bangladesh police to identify the officers who failed to act when Avijit Roy, an atheist American blogger, was attacked and killed last month in Dhaka.

“Identify the black sheep among the force and bring them under law and justice to uphold your image,” said HT Imam, political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Imam directed the remarks to Shahidul Hoque, the inspector general of Bangladesh police, while addressing a meeting at Dhaka University on the perception of police.

It was at the university that Roy, an engineer of Bangladeshi origin, was killed by machete-wielding assailants as he and his wife were returning from a book fair last month. His wife, Rafida Bonya Ahmed, suffered head injuries and lost a finger. She later returned to the US for treatment.

“While Avijit and I were being ruthlessly attacked, the local police stood close by and did not act,” Rafida told Reuters on Tuesday. “Now, we demand that the Bangladeshi government do everything in its power to bring the murderers to justice.”

Hoque, the chief of police, told the meeting the allegations were under investigation. He also said the university campus will now be covered by closed circuit television.

Avijit Roy was hacked to death for his secular views. Let’s share his story | Alom Shaha Read more

On Saturday, a court allowed one suspect in the killing, Farabi Shafiur Rahman, to be remanded in custody for another five days. He had already been held for 10 days, during which time he denied killing Avijit but said he was glad the blogger was attacked.

Rahman had previously been jailed for his ties to the extremist Hizbut Tahrir Islamist group.

Avijit’s killing follows a string of attacks on secular bloggers in recent years in the Muslim-majority nation. Media group Reporters Without Borders rated Bangladesh 146th among 180 countries in a ranking of press freedom last year.

Rafida urged the government to “stop a legal culture of impunity, where writers can be killed without the killers being brought to trial”.