Bangladesh must act on these brutal attacks on bloggers
We, the undersigned writers, and PEN members, come together to condemn the horrific deaths of our colleagues Ananta Bijoy Das (or Dash), Washiqur Rahman Babu and Avijit Roy, three secular bloggers who have been brutally murdered on the streets of Bangladesh in the last three months. We urge Prime Minister Hasina Wajed and her government to do all in their power to ensure that the tragic events of the last three months are not repeated, and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
We were shocked and horrified by the murder of 32-year-old blogger and editor Ananta Bijoy Das, who was hacked to death on his way to work by a masked gang wielding machetes in the city of Sylhet on 12 May. Prior to his death, Das had reportedly received a number of death threats from Islamist militants, and his name had appeared in two assassination lists published in the Bangladeshi media, alongside those of other secular bloggers described as anti-Islamic and blasphemous.
Just months earlier, on 26 February, Avijit Roy, a fellow blogger and close friend of Das, was similarly killed. Roy and his wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonya, were viciously attacked by unknown assailants close to Dhaka University. Roy died soon afterwards and his wife was severely injured. A militant Islamist group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
A month later, on 29 March, blogger Washiqur Rahman Babu was murdered just 500 yards from his home in Begunbari, Dhaka. Police have claimed that the attackers targeted the 27-year-old blogger because they believed he had defamed Islam through his writings on websites, forums and social media. Two students from a madrassa (an Islamic school) have since been arrested in connection with Rahman’s killing.
At least three other writers have been attacked or murdered in Bangladesh since 2013 and, although there have been several arrests, no one has been held to account for any of these attacks. We are gravely concerned by this escalating pattern of violence against writers and journalists who are peacefully expressing their views. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right under Bangladesh’s constitution and under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We call on the Bangladeshi authorities to swiftly and impartially investigate Das’s death as well as the murders of Roy and Babu, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice in accordance with international fair trial standards. We also demand that the authorities do all in their power to provide protection and support to bloggers and other writers at risk in Bangladesh, in accordance with Bangladesh’s obligations under national and international law.
Elisabeth Abendroth
Jim Aitken
Truijens Aleid
Frank Mackay Anim-Appiah
Frankie Asare-Donkoh President, Ghana PEN Centre
Margaret Atwood
Michael Augustin
Dr Hanan Awwad President, Palestine PEN
Cecilia Balcázar
Elke Bannach
María Cecilia Barbetta
Niels Barfoed
Shrabani Basu
Nazmi Bayrı
Ronald Bos
Marian Botsford Fraser Chair of Writers in Prison Committee, PEN International
Suzanne Brøgger
Dr Barbara Bronnen
Ricky Brown
Urvashi Butalia
Joyce Caplan
Metin Cengiz
Sudeep Chakravarty
Anne Clarke
Jennifer Clement
Jo Clifford
Anne Connolly
Daniela Dahn
Swapan Dasgupta
Rachna Davidar
Aline Davidoff President, PEN Mexico
Alexis de Roode
Siddharta Deb
Job Degenaar
Antonio Della Rocca President, PEN Trieste
Renan Demirkan
Meghnad Desai
Faisal Devji
Dr Mathias Schreiber
Dr Burkhart Veigel
Suzanne Egerton
John Elliott
Peter Englund
Haydar Ergülen
Roberto Fabris
Moris Farhi
Fahimeh Farsaie
Charles Foran
Öyvind Foss
Maureen Freely President, English PEN
Uwe Friesel
Jostein Gaarder
Meenakshi Ganguly
Nina George
Amitav Ghosh
Jo Glanville Director, English PEN
Brigitte C Gotthold
Fiona Graham
Gloria Guardia
Michael Guggenheimer
Apar Gupta
Daniel Hahn
Kaiser Haq
Josef Haslinger President, German PEN
Gert Heidenreich
Christoph Hein
Hallgrímur Helgason
Werner Holzer
Jules Horne
Iman Humaydan
Khademul Islam Member, Bangladesh PEN
Anjali Joseph
Wim Jurg
Sirpa Kähkönen President, Finnish PEN
Raghu Karnad
Lucina Kathmann
Jan Kemp
Andrej Khadanovich President, Belarusian PEN
Charlie King
Tanja Kinkel
Karl Ove Knausgaard
Sibylle Knauss
Christoph König
Anja Kovacs
Hari Kunzru
Ola Larsmo President, Swedish PEN
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
Joan Lingard
Chiara Macconi
Kona Macphee
Rishi Majumder
Emile Martel President, Quebec PEN
Yann Martel
Christine McKenzie President, PEN Melbourne
Kyle Mewburn President, PEN NZ
Alison Miller
Sam Miller
Denise Mina
Rohinton Mistry
Petra Morsbach
Lina Morselli
Neel Mukherjee
Ayten Mutlu
Maureen Myant
Vayoo Naidu
Hege Newth Nouri
William Nygaar President, Norwegian PEN
Harry Oberländer
Hans-Christian Oeser
Vida Ognjenovic
Per Øhrgaard President, Danish PEN
Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir
Zeynep Oral President, PEN Turkey
Margie Orford President, PEN South Africa
Mete Özel
Kaiser ÖzHun
Ra Page Founder, Comma Press
Peter Parker
Per Petterson
Tom Pow
Lutz Götze
Gabriele Pommerin-Götze
Christoph Lindenmeyer
Jean Rafferty
Anita Raghawan
Ashis Ray
Monika Rinck
Judith Rodriguez
Thomas Rothschild
Nilanjana Roy
Anuradha Roy
Elisabeth Ruge
Salman Rushdie
Gita Sahgal
Minoli Salgado
Alejandro Sánchez-Aizcorbe
Ulrike Sandig
Philippe Sands QC
Ashwin Sanghi
Rajdeep Sardesai
Ayse Sarisayan
Carole Satyamurthy
John Ralston Saul President, PEN International
Samantha Schnee
Christa Schuenke
Andrew Sclater
Sjón President, Icelandic PEN
Morelle Smith
Claire Squires
Elizabeth Starcevic
Leslie Stevenson
Liam Stewart
Klaus Theweleit
Annika Thor
Elsa Tió
Pragya Tiwari
Colm Tóibín
Carles Torner Director, PEN Internatioal
Salil Tripathi
Cynthia Troup
Aleid Truijens
Tina Uebel
Linn Ullmann
Manon Uphoff President, PEN Netherlands
Amir Valle Ojeda
Karthika VK
Martin A Völker
Gabriele von Arnim
Catherine Vuylsteke
Per Wästberg
Harry Watson
Herbert Wiesner
Les Wilson
Yazici Yasemin
Halim Yazıcı
Çetin Yiğenoğlu
Arnold Zable
Atiya Zaidi