Another blogger killed in city Police refused to record GD earlier [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Another blogger killed in city Police refused to record GD earlier

Local August 08, 2015

Another blogger and online activist was hacked to death by a gang of armed assailants inside his house in the capital’s East Goran area on Friday afternoon, barely three months after another blogger was killed in Sylhet.
Including the latest incident, so far, four bloggers and online activists were killed in 2015.
The deceased was identified as Niladri Chatterjee, 28. He used to write under the pen name Niloy Neel.
Four armed assailants stormed into his apartment at 167, East Goran, and hacked him indiscriminately to death, police said.
Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-Continent (AQIS) Bangladesh wing Ansar-Al-Islam has claimed responsibility for murder of Niladri.
In a media release sent from [email protected] email ID in the evening, one named Mufti Abdullah Ashraf, who claimed to be Ansar-Al-Islam spokesman, said the killing was to avenge the ‘honour of the messenger of Allah.’
‘If your “freedom of speech” maintains no limits, then spread your chests to the “freedom of our machetes”,’ further read the the statement.
The deceased’s wife Ashamoni and her sister were locked up at gunpoint while he was being stabbed.
Ashamoni told New Age that Niladri was threatened over phone earlier and followed around by some people. He went to Khilgaon and Shajahanpur police station before Ramadan to file a general dairy, but police declined to resister the allegation.

Niladri Chatterjee

Imran H Sarker, convener of the ganajaganran Mancha said Nilardi used to write on the rights of ethnic minority communities and women. He was regular on different secular blogsites, including Mukto-mona and Ishtishon.
Niladri was a critic of religious extremism that led to bombings at mosques and the killing of numerous civilians.
His wife said at first one youth, aged around 21, went to their flat after 1pm. He claimed that he wanted to rent the flat. He observed the flat and stayed there and tried to contact some others over mobile text message.
As Niladri asked the youth to leave the flat, suddenly three more armed people stormed into the house and started hacking at the online activists.
When Ashamoni and her sister started screaming, one of the assailants locked them inside another room and hacked to death Niladri in around three minutes.
The assailants were also shouting Naraye Takbir during the murder, said the wife.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue officials said there were around 15 to 20 marks of stab injuries on the blogger’s body.
Niladri was working at a non-government organisation named RDC and recently got transferred to Chapainawabganj, but returned after staying there a few weeks.
The assailants choose the time of Juma prayer to carry out the attack when most of the men were at mosques.
The couple was living on the fourth floor of the house for two years.
Graduating in philosophy of Dhaka University, Niladri got married around two years back, said one of his friends Debjeet Rudra.
A neighbour said that the assailants, including a bearded one, all below 30 years of age, were in jeans, shirts and T-shirts.
They carried the machetes on their hands on their way out and also dumped a blood-soaked cloth at a nearby dump.
DMP joint commissioner (crime) Krishnapada Roy told reporters they found similarity with the killing of other bloggers, but were yet to ascertain the motive.
The deceased’s friend Debjeet said that Nilardi told him he was threatened repeatedly over phone for his write-ups ‘against Islam’.
Family members said some people were also following him for many days. Around 20 days before Ramadan, when Nilardi was returning from a human chain demanding punishment of the killers of other bloggers, two people followed him on a bus till Gulistan and then in a four-wheeler till Shajahanpur, at evening.
Niladri became suspicious and went to Khilgaon police station that night to file a general dairy, but concerned policemen asked him to go to Shajahanpur police station. Shajahanpur police also refused to register the complaint, said the friend.
The police also asked him to go and seek asylum abroad, which Niladri was also trying to get, said his wife.
When contacted, DMP Motijheel zone additional deputy commissioner Farid Uddin said it would be difficult to ascertain whether he had gone to the police stations. ‘He could have talked to senior police officers as he failed to file the GD,’ he said.
Farid said that they would investigate the allegation.
The building owner claimed some other people often came to the house and stayed with tenants. Nilardi rented the house claiming to be a Muslim.
Earlier, blogger Ananta Bijay Das was hacked to death by unidentified miscreants in broad daylight at Subidbazar Bankalapara in Sylhet city on May 12.
Ananta was also an activist of Sylhet Ganajagaran Mancha.
Another blogger Oyasiqur Rahman was killed at Begunbari of Tejgaon industrial area on March 30.
Prior to the incident, a free-thinking writer and blogger, Avijit Roy, was hacked to death and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya grievously injured by unidentified assailants near TSC on the Dhaka University campus on the night of February 26.
Avijit, a Bangladesh-born US citizen, came to Bangladesh in mid-February to launch his two books which were published on the occasion of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair.
More than two years ago, on February 15, 2013, Ahmed Rajib Haidar, an architect by profession and an activist of the Shahbagh Ganajagaran Mancha movement, was stabbed to death near his house at Mirpur Palash Nagar in the capital.