Some credit where it’s due: It looks like Bangladeshi police officials are finally moving forward on seeking justice for at least one of the slain atheist bloggers.

Back in March, Washiqur Rahman (below) was brutally killed, with his face hacked up:

Now, five Islamist militants arrested in connection with his death are officially being charged with a crime:

Police brought the charges — the first in any of the four murders this year — in a Dhaka magistrates court, which will now decide whether to open a trial or order further investigations. … “They include an organiser of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and four others who are its supporters,” he said, referring to a banned local Islamist militant group which police have blamed in all four murders. … “The organiser of ABT, Hasibur Rahman, also known as Abdullah, recruited the other four and trained them for nearly three months for the specific purpose of murdering Washiqur,” said additional deputy police commissioner Saiful Islam.

It’s all still very premature. We don’t know what the judges will do, and there are still three other murdered atheists whose killers, while arrested, haven’t been charged in the same way.

The Bangladeshi government also hasn’t done much to prevent future slayings. “Banning” the Islamic group responsible for these attacks sounds good on paper, but we have yet to see how it will be enforced. Government officials also need to speak up more in defense of the atheists who dare to question religious dogma. There’s a cultural change that needs to take place and that may have to begin from the top down.



