A publisher is slainIN BANGLADESH, the killing in broad daylight of progressive, secular members of the intelligentsia has become almost routine. On October 31st, assailants burst into an office in the capital, Dhaka, armed with machetes and hacked to death Faisal Arefin Deepan, a publisher. On the same day, another publisher was critically injured, as were two other writers present.
Ansarullah Bangla Team, sometimes known as Ansar al-Islam, a banned group inspired by al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for this and most other killings of secular thinkers in Bangladesh. It has published a “hit list” of those deemed to be critics of Islam and vowed that “no one who supports atheists will be spared”.
Ever since partition in 1947, when it was known as East Pakistan, Bangladeshi politics has had a radical Islamist fringe. But, as during its war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, the fringe is growing in strength. The ruling Awami League (AL) remains the country’s only mainstream secular force, but the obsession of its leader, Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, with destroying the opposition...Continue reading
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