Niloy Chakrabarti claimed officers ignored threats weeks before he was hacked to death in his Dhaka flat, the fourth such murder this year

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A well-known secular blogger in Bangladesh who was murdered at his home on Friday had told police of threats against him and requested protection weeks before he died.

Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen name Niloy Neel, was hacked to death with machetes after a gang broke into his apartment in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. He is the fourth blogger to have been killed in Bangladesh since February.

In an interview with the Guardian in May, Chakrabarti said he was scared that he would be killed and that he had tried to file reports with local police about continued harassment. He claimed his complaints were not taken seriously.

Imran H Sarker, head of the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, said Chakrabarti had been a “listed target”. “They entered his room on the fifth floor and shoved his friend aside and then hacked him to death,” Sarker told Agence France-Presse.

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The hacking to death in February of Bangladeshi-born US citizen Avijit Roy, a science writer and blog site moderator, prompted outrage around the world.

His death was followed by that of 27-year-old Washiqur Rahman, killed in Dhaka in March, and Ananta Bijoy Das, murdered by a group wielding machetes on 13 May as he headed to work in Sylhet, northern Bangladesh.

More than 150 writers, including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Yann Martel and Colm Tóibín, signed a letter condemning the series of fatal attacks and calling on the country’s government “to ensure that the tragic events … are not repeated”.

All of the victims had been active on social media, criticising the extremist Muslim ideologies that have gained strength in Bangladesh in recent years or arguing in favour of progressive causes. On his Facebook account, Chakrabarti frequently wrote in favour of women’s rights.



Bangladesh is an officially secular country, but more than 90% of its 160 million people are Muslim.

Police confirmed Chakrabarti had been murdered by a group of half a dozen people in the capital’s Goran neighbourhood, although they had no details on the motive for the killing.

“There were six people who knocked on his door, saying that they were looking to rent a flat. Two of them then took him to a room and slaughtered him there,” Muntashirul Islam, a deputy police commissioner, said.

Police did not comment on charges that they had failed to act on Chakrabarti’s requests for protection.

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A group that has been linked to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the killing in an email on Friday evening.

The email was sent in the name of Ansar ul Islam, a little known organisation that has claimed responsibility for previous murders of bloggers and describes itself as the Bangladesh branch of al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (Aqis).

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida, announced the creation of an affiliate in south Asia last autumn.

Al-Qaida has lost ground to the newer Islamic State in recent months and has looked to expand its operations in other regions to maintain its profile. Zawahiri has mentioned Bangladesh repeatedly in recent communications.

The Dhaka Tribune, a local newspaper, reported the email as saying: “We, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the honour of the messenger of Allah. We declare war against the enemies of Allah and His Messenger. Enemies of Allah and His Messenger … we are coming [for] you … If your ‘Freedom of Speech’ maintains no limits, then widen your chests for ‘Freedom of our Machetes’.”

Aqis also claimed responsibility for Roy’s killing on 26 February, in which his wife was badly injured. An Islamist has been arrested over his murder. Two students at religious schools were arrested over the killing of Washiqur Rahman.

Authorities in the politically unstable south Asian state have been repeatedly criticised for not acting to protect free speech, though the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a hardline Islamist group, was banned following Das’s murder.

Police believe the ABT may be behind the three attacks. Members of the group have already been charged with the 2013 murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.

One hardline group, Hefazat-e-Islam, has publicly sought the execution of atheists who organised mass protests against the rise of political Islam.

Hefazat, led by Islamic seminary teachers, also staged a massive counter-protest against the bloggers in May 2013 that unleashed violence and left nearly 50 people dead.

Active bloggers in Bangladesh told the Guardian earlier this year they received death threats so frequently they could not be counted. They also risk jail terms of up to 14 years for publishing material that authorities deem to be false or defamatory.

In 2013, atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin was stabbed in the street by religious extremists. A month later, he was arrested and held in prison for making derogatory remarks about religion and his blog was banned.