Gasping in Islamist horror

By Emran Hossain

Moderate people throughout the country gasped in horror as the story of the double murder in Kalabagan in the capital unfolded last Monday.
Half a dozen suspected Islamist militants, in this planned attack that lasted for only three minutes, tricked their way into the first floor apartment of the country’s leading gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan and brutally hacked him and his visiting friend Mahbub Tonoy to death around 5:00pm.

The country’s leading gay rights activist, Xulhaz Mannan.

The perpetrators used machetes although they carried firearms as well, and almost severed the heads of the two innocent young men. They fled the scene unscathed, hardly challenged by a heavily armed police patrol team present in the area. On their retreat, the perpetrators were first challenged by the security guards of the apartment block and a passerby. With a security guard and the passerby severely injured and subdued, the perpetrators then faced the police on the street.
Police reportedly fired a shotgun and a pistol, but failed to hit any of the half a dozen killers, all dressed in blue-color T-shirts, which they soon took off and melted into the crowded city as quickly as they had come.
All the people interviewed following the murders at different parts of the city were so confused that they categorically refused to be identified in the report. “For all the free thinking people this type of murders in one’s house and in open daylight could trigger extreme outrage, hatred and fear,” said a young man.
Islamist militants have been attacking free thinking people all over the country – bloggers, writers, academics, and anyone having a different view about Islamic way of life. The Kalabagan killings came two days after militants hacked a Rajshahi University teacher to death. He was teaching English and known to have no link to any blog or controversial view on Islam. On Saturday in Tangail, 75 kilometres north of the capital, a Hindu man was hacked to death in his tailoring shop in broad daylight.  Following the killing, cops said he might have been killed for his earlier remarks on Islam.
Since 2013 five bloggers have been slain in similar ways. A publisher of a slain writer was also brutally killed last year.
The government has always claimed there is no presence of IS in the country, but soon after almost every recent killing, a US based website, SiteIntelligence.com, claiming to be monitoring worldwide Islamist terrorist activities, posted that IS had claimed responsibility for those killings.
Ananya Azad, a secular blogger, had to leave Bangaladesh for Germany towards the end of 2015 under threat on his life from the Islamists. His father Humayun Azad had also been hacked to the inches of his life in 2004, amid a crowd of thousands near a book fair, for his published opposition to political Islam in the country.

The visiting friend of Xulhaz Mannan, Mahbub Tonoy, who was also slain during the attacks.

Ananya said over the phone that Xulhaz’s fault to the killers was his voice demanding rights for the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) community.
Xulhaz edited the country’s first-ever and only LGBT magazine “Roopbaan” since 2014. His interviews against the social, cultural, and legal stigma against the people’s right to sexual identity were published in both social and mainstream media, including BBC Bangla.
Tonoy, also a theatre activist, was an active participant in campaigns organised for raising awareness regarding the life and rights of the LGBT community, photographs from different programmes attest to that.
“All these murders are well-planned,” said Ananya, adding, “Those killed in Kalabagan were outspoken for ensuring gay rights. They toiled for creating a society where members of the LGBT community may live.”
“A list of the people vocal for ensuring rights over issues that do not match with Islam has already been prepared,” he said.
Those on the list of slain were either freethinkers or spoke in favour of equal rights, including rights of an atheist or a LGBT person.
A documentary maker seeking anonymity said this killing spree led him to think about moving out of the country along with his family.
“Such an idea came to my mind first time in 40 years of my life,” he said.
Another online writer who braved to stay back in the country despite receiving threats said, “If the situation continues like this, we will have trouble finding a normal human being living in this country.”
His identity is withheld for security concerns.
“Nobody is safe in Bangladesh anymore,” said the writer, adding, “When you are not safe inside home, fear of brutal death haunts you all the time, everywhere.”

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Posted by Reportsbd on May 3 2016. Filed under Home Slide, Special Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry