Taslima tweeted an article in the Times of India: Bangladeshi blogger gets death threat on Facebook.
He will be ‘The Next’, Ananya Azad was warned on a social networking site. A day after ‘The Guardian’ broke the story of how the 25-year-old Bangladeshi blogger was living a life of fear, Ananya spoke exclusively to TOI on Friday.
Speaking from Dhaka, Ananya – who is on a hit list containing the names of 84 atheist bloggers – said: “I am no stranger to death threats and bloodshed.
“My father, author Humayun Azad, was attacked on the streets. But what shocked me was the nature of threat that I got on Facebook. It addressed my father as ‘Nastiker sardar’. It means the leader of atheists. It said being his son, I would meet a gruesome death. My throat would be slashed at Dhaka University’s Raju Bhaskarjya!”
We know these guys don’t mess around.
Ananya is not the only blogger suffering. TOI traced another blogger who is now in hiding in Dhaka. On May 12, a gang of masked assailants had hacked to death blogger Ananta Bijay Das. Ever since, his fellow blogger Monir Hussain has gone into hiding. Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin, in New York now, is trying to help him move out of the country. Monir has stopped updating his blog. Speaking from an undisclosed location in Dhaka, he said: “For 15 days, I have been locked in a room. No TV. No newspapers. I’ve deactivated my Facebook profile.”
Taslima said: “I’m trying to help these bloggers get out of Bangladesh. I am requesting organizations in America and Europe to invite these bloggers to their countries. I have requested the Swedish embassy to grant visa to Monir. Bloggers in Bangladesh are panic-striken. The government isn’t giving them any protection.”
It’s a nightmare.
While the Bangladeshi government is taking minimal action after the fact to outlaw various Islamist groups atheists are still getting death threats and are still being killed. The government needs to be more active in protecting their citizens.
It is indeed a nightmare and my heart and sympathies go out to Taslima Nasreen a person I have the greatest respect for. Plus others like her in similar circumstances. I can only begin to imagine what that must be like.
I’ve heard a lot about the fair-mindedness and decency of the moderate members of the religion of Peace, so I expect they are out on the streets loudly protesting against the murderous gangs and the government inaction – and even more loudly demanding that the atheist bloggers should not be killed.