ADVERTISEMENTA Bangladeshi blogger committed to secularism was hacked to death in his apartment by a group of attackers bearing machetes, it’s been claimed.
Niloy Chkrabarti, 40, an advocate of splitting church and state, was killed in his flat in the capital, Dhaka, said police.
“We are speechless. He was demanding justice for killing of other bloggers,” said Imran Sarker, head of a network of activists and bloggers. “Who will be next for demanding justice for Niloy?”
Chatterjee, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, was a critic of religious extremism that led to bombings in mosques and the killing of numerous civilians, Sarker said.
The murder of Chkrabarti, who wrote under the name of Niloy Neel, was the fourth of its kind this year in Bangladesh.
“Six people have knocked on his door, claiming to want to rent an apartment. Two took him to a room where they were massacred,” said police official Muntashirul Islam.
In February, machete-wielding assailants hacked to death a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin and critic of religious militancy, Avijit Roy, and seriously injured his wife and fellow blogger, Rafida Bonya Ahmed.
In May, Ananta Bijoy Das, an atheist blogger, was killed by a commando armed with machetes.