Bangladesh: Avijit’s killers must be traced, prosecuted and punished (editorial, New Age)

New Age (Bangladesh)

Editorial

Avijit’s killers must be traced, prosecuted and punished
February 28, 2015

THE attack on Avijit Roy, a non-resident Bangladeshi academic, writer and blogger, and son of a retired Dhaka University professor, on the DU campus Thursday night, which led to his death in Dhaka Medical College Hospital about an hour and a half later, is reminiscent of the attack on Humayun Azad on the night of February 27, 2004 — for the uncanny similarities in manner, cause and context — although the late DU professor survived the attempts on his life with grievous injury and later died of heart attack in Germany. In fact, according to a report published in New Age on Friday, before the attack near the university’s Teacher-Student Centre, the late Avijit had received several threats that he would meet the fate of Professor Azad.
While we reserve any comment on the issues that his writing, in print and online, focused on, pending further scrutiny of his works, we may safely assume from the titles of his two latest publications — Bishwaser Virus (Virus of faith) and Abishwaser Darshan (Philosophy of disbelief) — that he believed in free and rational intellectual pursuit beyond any theological belief system. His way of thinking may seem unorthodox and even anti-convention to the majority of people in Bangladesh; however, he had every right to pursue and articulate such thinking in print, online or else. That he had to pay the price for what he believed in with his life tends to highlight how vicious and pervasive intolerance of divergent and opinions has become in society.
As much as we condemn the ferocity and bigotry of Avijit’s purported killers, we cannot condone the failure of the authorities — the Dhaka University administration in particular and the government in general — to ensure public safety and security on the university campus, especially when the most high-profile book fair in the country, Amar Ekushey Granthamela, is ongoing. It is all the more so in view of their well-publicised claim of comprehensive security on the campus, including the venue of the fair. The police, the Rapid Action Battalion and different other law enforcement agencies deployed on the campus to ensure public safety and security certainly owe people an explanation for the serious security failure that led to the attack on Avijit and also his wife, who is now under treatment for grievous injuries.
What is ironic, perhaps, is that those who supposedly believe in the right to freedom of thought and expression and people at large would now have to seek redress for Avijit’s killing from a government, which itself has apparently become increasingly vicious and violent in its intolerance of divergent political views and opinions. However, it is imperative that those opposed to free and rational thinking should be given a clear message, ie the space for diversity of views and opinions would be protected at any cost, by serious, sincere and stringent measures to immediately identify Avijit’s killers and put them in the dock. To prove that it is up to the task of protecting such space and repelling its intruders, the government must first abandon its own intolerant attitude towards and action against those critical of its authoritarian governance.