Updated: 02/26/15 12:03PM

Author and blogger Avijit Roy has been killed in what looks like a militant attack against him and his wife.

His wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonna who is also a blogger remains in critical condition.

According to the Center for Inquiry website,

Dr. Roy was the founder of the website Mukto-mona, an online network of freethinkers of mainly Bengali and South Asian descent, as well as the author of several books, and a contributor to our own magazine Free Inquiry and our Free Thinking blog. When seven Bangladeshi atheist bloggers were arrested in blasphemy in 2013, Dr. Roy worked closely with us to connect us with the bloggers and their families, focus the international community’s attention on the injustice, and help organize and promote protests around the world.

While details at the moment are scarce, the Dhaka Tribune reported:

Bonna told the Dhaka Tribune: “The miscreants attacked us with cleaver around 8:45pm.” Witnesses said some unidentified miscreants swooped on the bloggers and hacked them mercilessly between 8:30pm and 9pm while they were returning from the book fair, leaving them critically injured. OC Sirajul said: “We do not have any clear idea about the attackers. But, the police is suspecting that those, who attacked Humayun Azad, might be behind this as the attacking style suggested similarity.” On February 27, 2004, professor Humayun Azad was attacked on the way back from book fair, in the following August he died in Germany. Miscreants also exploded two crude bombs outside of the DMCH around 11:30pm, immediately after the news spread in the city.

And according to Dhaka University Proctor Amjad Ali said: “I came to know the writer had been receiving threats from militants because of his anti-communal activism.”

An online retailer selling Roy’s books had recently removed the items from the store after receiving death threats from Islamic groups.

Roy was a fellow writer at American Atheist magazine and the news of his death is a horrific reminder of what some in the free-thought community put on the line to make their voices heard.

Roy and others risk their lives everyday just by putting their hands to a keyboard and speaking out against militants and oppressors.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the Ex-Muslims of North America said of the murder,

Words cannot express our grief and the loss of everyone in the free-thought community internationally.

The Center for Inquiry has released a statement as well:

“I cannot overstate how great a loss this is,” said Michael De Dora, CFI’s chief UN representative and friend of Dr. Roy. “Avijit was brilliant, yes, and a devoted advocate of free expression and secularism, but also just a very good person. Avijit was an inspiration to countless other freethinkers, in Bangladesh and around the world, and he was an inspiration to me. I valued our friendship deeply, as I valued his contributions to our shared mission. I will miss him, and the global freethought community will feel the impact of his loss. His example will no doubt continue to shine.”

More updates will be posted here as they become available.