Government’s ban on Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), an Islamist outfit blamed for the killings of two free-thinkers and bloggers in Dhaka and one in Sylhet in a span of only 75 days, came on the heel of utter failure of law enforcing agencies.

THE serial killing of bloggers in Bangladesh, with little development as far as catching and punishing the assassins are concerned, has compelled the Human Rights Forum (Bangladesh) to call upon the government to provide protection to online writers/activists, many of them still on the hit-list of religious extremists.

It is hard to believe that a group of writers are in mortal danger in the country now just for expressing their opinions. But that’s the truth.

Human Rights Forum (HRF), national coalition of 19 rights and development organisations, calls upon government to provide protection to bloggers and online writers who are at risk.

In just over two years, Bangladesh has lost five dynamic, assertive, free thinkers to gruesome acts of deliberate violence.

Condemning recent killings of bloggers in Bangladesh, UN human rights experts warn that it is an alarming signal of deterioration of the space for freedom of expression.

THE brutal murders of two bloggers by extremists, one in full public view and the other in broad daylight, in a residential area of the city in disturbingly quick succession have understandably created a wave of fear amongst the people.