Bangladeshi inquisitions

(On 31 October 2015, three bloggers were assaulted in Dhaka's Lalmatia area, leading to the death of Faisal Deepan, one of Avijit Roy's publishers. Avijit Roy, the founder of the rationalist blog Mukto-Mona, was similarly hacked to death in February this year. Bangladesh is facing a serious threat to freedom of expression, but where is it coming from? In this essay from our latest quarterly issue 'The Bangladesh Paradox', Salil Tripathi explains the historical and political context behind these continuing attacks. See more from the issue here.)

Are you
Muslim or Bengali, they
Asked again and again.
Both, I said, both-then
Rocks were broken along
My spine, my hair a black
Fist in their hands, pulled
Down into the river again
And again.
Each day, each
Night: river, rock, fist.

– Tarfia Faizullah

In a pattern that has now become eerily familiar in Bangladesh, in early August 2015, six men came to the home of Neeladri Chatterjee – a social activist and blogger who wrote under the pen name Niloy Neel – saying they were prospective tenants. Two of the men, reportedly, unleashed their machetes and attacked Neel in one of the rooms at his home, killing him, while his wife Ashamoni was confined to another room.

The 40-year-old wrote frequently and critically against religious fundamentalism on the rationalist blog, Mukto-Mona, meaning 'free mind'. In May, Neel had gone to the police station, seeking security, after he saw two men stalking him. Police officials' advice to him was to leave the country.