 |
| Image: Wiki Commons |
By Sanjay Kumar
A string of recent attacks against liberal writers demonstrate that the country is also struggling with an extremist fringe.
Terrorism has claimed one more life in Bangladesh. The brutal killing of the publisher Faisal Abedin Deepan last Saturday is a shocking reminder to the people Bangladesh that the country is still at war against the Islamic extremist forces after forty five years of independence.
Deepan was the publisher for the expatriate Bangladeshi blogger, Avijit Roy, who was killed in February 2015 on the campus of Dhaka University while on a visit to Bangladesh in order to launch his latest book . Two more publishers were also targeted on Saturday, but both of them survived the attack. In total, four bloggers and one publisher have lost their lives so far in 2015.
The recent killing has caused a backlash throughout the country. People have been pouring onto the streets to protest against the government unwillingness to act. They also burned copies of the book to decry the violence against the writers. Since Saturday, protests have been going on in different parts of the country by people from all parts of Bangladeshi society.
This conflict between Bangladeshi liberal forces and religious extremists is not new. In large part, it is the legacy of the Liberation war of 1971, when the Islamic extremist group Jamaat-e-Islami, with support from Pakistan, staged a concerted attack against the liberal segments of the country for demanding secession in the name of Bengali nationalism and secularism. Despite their defeat, which resulted in Bangladesh’s independence, the extremist forces could not accept the birth of a nation which considered itself Bengali first and Muslim second.
Read the full story at The Diplomat