DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct. 31 (UPI) — The targeting of secular writers, editors and publishers by Islamist extremists in Bangladesh continued on Saturday, as a publisher was hacked to death and three others were injured in two separate attacks.
The first attack took place at Shuddhashar publishing house, where a group shot and stabbed publisher Ahmed Rahim Tutul and two others who were in the building. All three men, which included writers Ranadeep Basu and Tareque Rahim, were hospitalized. Tutul remains in critical condition.
Not long after, in a separate attack, Faisal Arefin Dipan, owner of the Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house, was left bleeding to death from fatal stab wounds. Dipan is the son of popular Bangladesh writer Abul Kashem Fazlul Haq.
Both Dipan and Tutul had published books by Bangladeshi-American Avijit Roy, a popular atheist blogger and writer, who was accused by extremists of insulting Islam. In February, Roy was hacked to death while walking with his wife on the campus of Dhaka University — one of four bloggers to be killed by extremists so far this year.
In March, secular blogger Washiqur Rahman was killed. In May attackers fatally stabbed Ananta Bijoy Das as he left his home. Blogger Niloy Chakrabati became the fourth killed when he was slaughtered by machete-yielding extremists in August.
All four were targeted for insulting Islam. All four published critiques of religious fundamentalism on a blog founded by Roy’s father, Ajoy Roy, a professor, writer and human rights activist.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the most recent attacks, but all previous blogger killings have been carried out by members of Ansarullah Bangla Team, an extremist group with ties to the Islamic State and affiliated with a variety of other terror organizations and Islamist political factions.
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