Murdered Bangladeshi blogger Ananta Bijoy Das
by David Bergman
The Bangladeshi blogger who goes by the name of Euklid fears, unsurprisingly, for his safety. But in the face of a spree of attacks on his online colleagues, what frightens him even more is the future of his country, he says. “The government should act quickly and neutralize these militant groups, otherwise Bangladesh could become like Afghanistan or Iraq.”
Euklid, a 24-year-old engineering student who describes himself as an “atheist” blogger, was speaking a week after the murder of his fellow writer Ananta Bijoy Das in Bangladesh’s northern city of Sylhet, which has brought to three the number of secular citizen journalists hacked to death in the last three months. A fourth blogger was also killed in similar circumstances just over two years ago.
On Monday, Unesco director-general Irina Bokova condemned the murder of Das, and called on the Bangladesh authorities to bring those responsible to justice.
Expressing fear for safety of citizen journalists in Bangladesh, Bokova added: “Punishing such attacks is indispensable to maintain free public debate and free expression by media professionals and committed citizens alike.”
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