Attacks on secularists and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh since 2013

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Since 2013 there have been increased attacks on secularists and members of religious minorities in Bangladesh . The brutal and ritualistic approach of the perpetrators, who often attack their victims in groups and jointly hack them to death with machetes , has attracted worldwide attention. The acts were usually attributed to Islamist extremists. The victims were mostly people who publicly represented a secular or atheistic worldview. Tensions intensified especially after the conviction of several members of the Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami for human rights crimes during the Bangladesh war in 1971 by the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. Most of the victims were bloggers in social networks or students or professors at colleges or universities. Together with the isolated Islamist attacks on religious-ethnic minorities, especially since 2015, which have followed a similar pattern, at least 30 to 40 people have fallen victim to the attacks since 2013. So far, the perpetrators have only been caught or convicted in a minority of cases.

Background: Islam and politics in Bangladesh

Islam in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a predominantly Islamic country. About 90% of the population belong to Sunni Islam. The remaining 10% are predominantly Hindus , as well as small minorities of Buddhists, Christians and followers of ethnic religions . Islam in Bangladesh, however, has a different character than, for example, the Orthodox Islam with Arabic characteristics. It is strongly influenced by Sufism and, due to its centuries of coexistence with other religions (Hinduism, ethnic religions), it has also incorporated cultural elements from these. Immediately after India's independence and partition in 1947, around 25% of the population in what is now Bangladesh was Hindu. Their relative share of the population has declined due to flight and mass displacement immediately after the division and subsequent long-term discrimination.

Since independence

After the end of British colonial rule in 1947, today's Bangladesh became part of the newly founded state of Pakistan as East Pakistan . The state ideology of Pakistan became a doctrinal Islam that was supposed to serve as an ideological bracket to hold the heterogeneous country together. After decades of discrimination by the Pakistani central government, an uprising broke out in East Pakistan and after the war of independence in 1971 it became an independent state under the name of Bangladesh. During the loss-making War of Independence, it was mainly Islamist groups, in particular the Jamaat-e-Islami, who supported the Pakistani government in suppressing the independence movement. Numerous human rights crimes were committed.

Islamism as an ideology was therefore initially discredited in the newly founded state of Bangladesh. Islamist groups such as Jamaat-e-Islami were banned and Bangladesh defined itself in its 1972 constitution as a strictly secular socialist state modeled on neighboring India . In 1975, however, there was some kind of backlash. The government was overthrown in a coup and the subsequently ruling military governments pursued a partial re-Islamization. Islam was declared the state religion and an amnesty was granted for the Islamist human rights crimes in the War of Independence.

Development after 1990

From 1990 on, civilian governments took over again. In fact, a kind of two-party system has existed since then . On one side is the conservative-moderate Islamic Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which is led by Khaleda Zia . Khaleda Zia is the widow of General Ziaur Rahman , who ruled Bangladesh at the head of a military government from 1977 to 1981 and at that time ensured that the constitution was moderately Islamized again. Khaleda Zias BNP faces the moderately socialist secular Awami League under Hasina Wajed . Hasina Wajed is the daughter of the first Prime Minister of the independent Bangladesh, Mujibur Rahman , who was overthrown and murdered in the 1975 military coup. Party politics is therefore also strongly influenced by personal animosities that stem from this past. Awami League and BNP have replaced each other in power at irregular intervals since 1990. The 2001 parliamentary election was won by the BNP. The fact that the BNP had entered into an electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami was particularly controversial at the time.

After the 2008 election: the trials of the Islamists

The 2008 election was won by the Awami League and Hasina Wajid became Prime Minister. During the election campaign, the Awami League promised to deal with the serious human rights crimes from the time of the War of Independence. This was done and the government set up a special court, the International crimes tribunal ( International Crimes Tribunal - against his appointment a purely occupied with Bangladeshi judges Court). The tribunal gradually indicted practically the entire old leadership of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and imposed a number of death sentences, some of which were carried out. The world public welcomed the trials in principle, as they were horrific crimes that had so far gone unpunished, but criticized the fact that some of the trials did not meet strict constitutional criteria. Public opinion in Bangladesh was divided. On the one hand, there were mass demonstrations for the death penalty among the main defendants (e.g. the Shahbag protests of February 2013 in Dhaka and around the world). Others saw the trials as a political campaign of revenge by the Awami League against their political opponents (Jamaat and indirectly also the BNP).

Attacks on secularists

The attacks on secularists can be seen against the background described. Ultimately, these attacks are a reflection of the social disputes over the state and social order that have been going on in Bangladesh for a long time. The question here is whether the country should have a secular or an Islamist social order. Since the perpetrators have only been partially identified up to now, no reliable statement can be made as to whether nationally organized or controlled groups are at work and whether there are “higher principals” or whether the actions are individual, quasi-independent cells. Again and again there was the assumption that cells of the so-called Islamic State are also active in Bangladesh, which the government constantly denies. The inability of the state organs in Bangladesh to arrest the perpetrators or to protect people at risk effectively has met with strong criticism both nationally and internationally.

Asif Mohiuddin

Asif Mohiuddin is a Bangladeshi blogger who had made a name for himself as an internet activist since around 2008. In his posts on the first blog in Bengali language in Bangladesh, somewhereinblog.net , he dealt critically and ironically with the Koran and the Islamic holy scriptures and described the miracles described there as scientifically impossible. He openly described himself as an atheist and advocated women's rights as well as the rights of religious and ethnic minorities and homosexuals. The blog found many readers in the rapidly growing internet and blogger community and aroused the displeasure of Islamist circles. On January 15, 2013, Mohiuddin was attacked near his workplace in Motijheel, a district of Dhaka. The attackers stabbed him many times with a knife, seriously injuring him. Mohiuddin survived the attack. After being charged and imprisoned for alleged blasphemy, he finally fled to Germany in April 2014, from where he continued to spread his views.

Ahmed Rajib Haider

Ahmed Rajib Haider was a Bangladeshi architect and blogger. In his blog he had written critically about the activities of Islamists and Islamic fundamentalism and had professed atheism himself. He had also reported in detail on the so-called Shahbag protests in spring 2013 and helped organize them. These protests, which originally began in Shahbag Square, a central square in the capital Dhaka, but then expanded to other cities in Bangladesh and were also followed closely by the global Bangladeshi diaspora, brought tens of thousands of protesters against those charged with human rights crimes on trial Standing leader of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami demonstrated and called for the death penalty. On February 15, 2015, Haider was attacked by five people near his apartment in Mirpur, a district of Dhaka, who beat him with machetes and then cut his throat. He died in the attack. A little later, the police arrested five students as alleged perpetrators. On December 31, 2015, a Bangladeshi court sentenced two of those arrested, both members of the radical Islamist Ansarullah Bangla group , a faction allegedly associated with al-Qaeda, to death for the murder.

Sunnyur Rahman

On March 6, 2013, Sunnyur Rahman was attacked in Dhaka and seriously injured by multiple knife wounds. Rahman was a Shahbag activist and blogger who criticized the activities of Islamist parties on his blogs. The perpetrators were two "bearded young men". The injured Rahman was taken to Dhaka Medical Hospital by his neighbors and survived the attack. His friends held the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student organization Islami Chattra Shibir responsible. Both organizations denied this.

Mahmudul Haque Munshi

The blogger Mahmudul Haque Munshi and operator of the "Blogger online activist network" survived several murder attempts and attacks, including an attack on himself on April 4, 2014, which was broadcast by various television channels. He came to Germany on a grant in autumn 2015, where he has lived with his family ever since. In May 2020 he was elected to the board of secular refugee aid .

Shafiul Islam

On November 16, 2014 , Shafiul Islam, a professor of sociology at the University of Rajshahi , was hacked to death by a group of attackers with machetes. A previously unknown group called Ansar al Islam Bangladesh-2 claimed responsibility for the attack and described Islam in a post as " apostates " who had prevented female students from wearing the veil in its lectures . In response to the murder, public protests by university teachers and students followed. Shafiul Islam was also known as a follower of the Baul culture, which is viewed by strict Islamists as pagan un-Islamic.

Avijit Roy

The attack on Avijit Roy on February 26, 2015 triggered the largest media coverage of all cases. Roy was a doctor of biotechnology who had lived in the United States since 2006, where he worked as a computer specialist, and who had both Bangladeshi and US citizenship. Roy came from a Hindu family and had founded the Mukto-Mona (free thinker) website, on which he propagated his ideas and ideals of a human society that he imagined to be “free from belief in authority and frozen traditions”. Roy was the author of several books in English and Bengali. He publicly campaigned for the maintenance of freedom of the press and freedom of speech in Bangladesh, condemned the arrest of bloggers and the restriction of their websites, which took place at the instigation of the Bangladeshi government from March / April 2013, and coordinated protests against it at home and abroad . In his activities he was supported by his wife.
In February 2015, Roy and his wife attended the Ekushey Book Fair , a book fair about Bengali literature in Dhaka. On the way home in a bicycle rickshaw , the couple was attacked by a group of young men who beat Roy with machetes, killing him. His wife, who tried to come to his aid, was also injured by blows from a machete (she lost the thumb of her left hand and suffered serious cuts all over her body). The perpetrators were able to escape undetected. A little later, an Islamist group Ansar Bangla-7 confessed to the act. The police suspected that the well-known organization Ansarullah Bangla , which was probably identical to Ansar Bangla-7 , was the perpetrator . On August 18, 2015, three people who were alleged to be members of Ansarullah Bangla were arrested as suspects.
The murder sparked shock and outrage around the world. Students and teachers from the University of Dhaka demonstrated for an intensive search for the perpetrators. Numerous human rights and journalist organizations around the world followed suit.

Washiqur Rahman Babu

Washiqur Rahman Babu was a 26-year-old blogger who wrote articles in various Internet forums under the pseudonym Kutshit Hasher Chhana ( Ugly Duckling , " the ugly duckling "). In his contributions, he was critical of supposedly irrational religious views and superstitions as well as of Islamic fundamentalism. He also wrote against the repression of religious and ethnic minorities in Bangladesh. On March 30, 2015, he was attacked near his home in the densely populated Begunbari district of Dhaka by three men who struck him with cleaver. He died at the site of the attack. Just a few minutes after the murder, two of the perpetrators were overwhelmed by passers-by. One of the perpetrators was a student at a madrasa in Chittagong , the other a student at an Islamic seminary in Dhaka. One of the two arrested persons stated that he attacked Babu for humiliating his prophet.

Ananta Bijoy That

On May 12, 2015, Ananta Bijoy Das was attacked by five or six masked men armed with machetes in Sylhet , a major provincial capital in northeastern Bangladesh. Ananta Bijoy Das was a blogger bank clerk who was the author of several books, the editor of a Bengali science magazine Jukti and chairman of the local secular Sylhet Science and Rationalist Council . In his blog posts, Das had spoken out in favor of the death penalty for all suspected war criminals of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The robbery happened in broad daylight in the middle of the city when Das was on his way to work in a bank. He was still trying to escape, but was caught up by the attackers and hacked to death in front of passers-by. That was murdered before he could start a stay abroad already mediated by the international aid network for threatened authors ICORN . Three suspected attackers were later arrested by the police, while three other suspects have not been caught so far (as of May 2016). According to the police, the three arrested belonged to the Islamist terrorist group Ansarullah Bangla .

Niladri Chatterjee

Niladri Chatterjee (or Niladri Chattopadhyay Niloy), who had a Masters degree in Philosophy from Dhaka University and was better known to the public by his blogger and Facebook name Niloy Neel , posted on his blog posts against militant activists, war criminals in the War of Independence 1971 and against the Jamaat-e-Islami. He spoke on women's and children's rights and other social issues. Chatterjee was a member of the Bangladesh Rationalists' Society and had publicly denounced the killing of bloggers on several occasions. In his blog posts, he reported that he had been repeatedly threatened by unknown people over the Internet. His name appeared on a "list of anti-Islamic people".
On August 7, several people entered his apartment in Dhaka on the pretext of renting an apartment and therefore wanting to view his apartment. They locked his wife and sister-in-law on the balcony and hit Chatterjee with machetes shouting " Naraye Takbir, Allahu Akbar ". Chatterjee died in his apartment. He was 28 years old. A little later, various Bangladeshi media received an email in which a group " al-Qaeda on the Indian subcontinent" claimed responsibility for the attack and which included a "declaration of war on these worst enemies of Allah". The police suspected the Islamist terrorist organization Ansarullah Bangla , which had been banned since May 25, 2015 .

Faisal Arefin Dipan

Faisal Arefin Dipan was a 43-year-old Dhaka publicist who worked for Jagriti Prokashoni , which had published some books by Avijit Roy and other secular literature. On August 31, 2015, he was found dead in his office. He had been killed with a machete. On the same day, three other publicists and writers were attacked, but they survived, some seriously injured. At first no one confessed to the act. However, based on the pattern of attack and the positions of those attacked, Islamist extremists were suspected.

Nazimuddin Samad

Nazimuddin Samad was a 28-year-old student of law at the Jagannath University , who was also active as a blogger and represented liberal views there. On April 6, 2016, he was ambushed by strangers on a busy street in the middle of Dhaka, near the university, and killed with machetes. According to witness statements, the attackers called Allahu Akbar . After the murder, Ansar al-Islam , the Bangladeshi branch of "al-Qaeda on the Indian subcontinent" confessed to the crime. The police then complained that, despite many witnesses, they had received very little information about the perpetrators.

Rezaul Karim Siddique

On April 23, 2016, the 58-year-old English professor at the University of Rajshahi Rezaul Karim Siddique was ambushed on his way to work by strangers who hacked him to death with machetes. Although the murder was strongly reminiscent of an Islamist background, the crime remained inexplicable for the relatives. Siddique was a withdrawn person and never spoke out publicly against the religion. He merely organized a cultural group Komol Gandhar and published a biannual Bengali literary magazine of the same name. Shortly after the murder, the so-called Islamic State confessed to the crime and justified it by saying that Siddique had "called for atheism".

Xulhaz Mannan and Tanay Mojumdar

Xulhaz Mannan and his partner Tanay Mojumdar (Mahbub Tonoy) were two LGBT activists in Dhaka. 39-year-old Mannan was the founder of Roopbaan , the first LGBT magazine in Bangladesh, and at the same time an employee of the US embassy. Tonoy was also an LGBT activist and stage actor. Both had actively participated in the organization of the "Rainbow Rally" ( rainbow rally ), an annual LGBT event on the occasion of the Bengali New Year on 14./15. April involved. Because of these activities, they had received severe hostility from conservative Islamic circles.
On April 25, 2016, five young men posing as parcel couriers broke into Mannan's and Tonoy's apartment and killed them with machetes. A security guard at the building was also seriously injured.

Attacks on religious minorities and foreigners

Members of religious minorities, including foreigners, have increasingly been victims of “sectarian” acts of violence, most of them probably motivated by Islam, since 2015. On September 29, 2015, the Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella was shot dead by strangers in the diplomatic quarter of Dhaka. On October 3rd, the Japanese project worker Kunio Hoshi was shot dead in the city of Kaunia in northern Bangladesh. In both cases the so-called “Islamic State” committed itself to the act.

On October 6, 2015, the Bangladeshi pastor Luke Sarker barely survived a knife attack by three men who fled after Sarker's wife came to the rescue. On November 18, 2015, the Italian doctor and priest Piero Parolari, who had worked in Bangladesh for many years, was shot at by strangers on a motorcycle, but survived.

On October 24, 2015, a bomb exploded in the midst of a Shiite procession in Dhaka, killing at least 80 people. An attack on a Shiite mosque in Bogra on November 27, 2015 resulted in at least one death and three injured. In both cases, the so-called Islamic State confessed to the attacks, which the Bangladeshi authorities described as not credible. The originators are rather local militant groups like the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB).

On April 30, 2016, Nikhil Chandra Joarder, a member of the Hindu minority and a tailor by profession, was attacked and murdered by several youths with cleaver in Tangail . Joarder had once been sentenced to three months in prison for " insulting the Prophet Muhammad ". On May 14, 2016, a 75-year-old Buddhist monk was murdered by strangers who cut his throat in the Bandarban district . On May 21, 2016, a village doctor working as a homeopath in the provincial town of Kushtia was attacked by strangers and hacked to death with machetes. The so-called Islamic State declared itself responsible for the crime and declared that the victim had to die because he wanted to "spread Christianity".

A 60-year-old member of the Christian minority was the victim of a robbery in the Natore district on June 5, 2016 . The attackers hit him with cleavers or machetes, killed him and then fled undetected. On the same day, the wife of a senior police officer in Chittagong was shot dead by a stranger. According to the police, this murder was similar to previous ones committed by Islamists. On June 7 and June 10, 2016, two members of the Hindu minority, a priest and a guard of a monastery, were murdered with cleaver in the districts of Jhenaidah and Pabna . In both cases, the "Islamic State" was suspected to be the originator or committed to the act.

On July 2, 2016, a 62-year-old Hindu priest was hit with cleaver by several attackers in the Jhenaidah district . He died at the location of the attack. The attackers fled on a motorcycle. Just a few hours earlier, two activists from the Islami Chattra Shibir (Jamaat's student organization) and alleged perpetrators of previous murders were killed in a nearby gun battle with the police.

On July 2, 2016, an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack with hostage-taking occurred in the Holey Artisan café in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter in the Gulshan district , in which 20 café-goers were killed by the hostage-takers. 18 of them were foreigners. The "Islamic State" took responsibility for the act. However, the Bangladeshi authorities suspected JMB as the author. On July 7, 2016, 7 to 8 men with machetes and firearms attacked the police base in Sholakia near Kishoreganj . Two police officers and at least one uninvolved person died. Four of the attackers could be arrested according to the police.

Response from the Bangladeshi government

On February 22, 2013, after Friday prayers , the 12 Islamist parties in Bangladesh called for the death penalty to be imposed on allegedly blasphemous bloggers who had insulted Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. To the disappointment of many secular and anti-Islamist Internet activists, the Bangladeshi government gave in to pressure from Islamic clerics and set up a committee on March 13, 2013, to encourage bloggers or Facebook users to make derogatory or "blasphemous" remarks about the Prophet or made Islam to identify and then to prosecute them accordingly. The committee was directly subordinate to Prime Minister Hasina Wajed.

On April 1, 2013, the first three bloggers - Subrata Adhikari Shuvo, Mashiur Rahman Biplob and Rasel Parvez - were arrested on suspicion of spreading “inflammatory comments” on religious content. Asif Mohiuddin (see above) was also arrested on April 4, 2013.

Several international organizations including Human Rights Watch , Amnesty International , Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the arrests. The decision of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on March 29, 2016, according to which Islam remains the state religion in Bangladesh and the secular constitution from 1972 should not be reintroduced, was also received with disappointment by the secularists. In an interview with Deutsche Welle on April 27, 2016, the judge at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Sara Hossain, stated that ultimately the Bangladeshi government is responsible for what is happening in Bangladesh. She also indirectly criticized the Supreme Court's decision and called for the establishment of a "platform to protect secular activists".

On June 10, 2016, police in Bangladesh cracked down on suspected Islamic militants across the country. According to police, more than 1,600 suspects have been arrested. Among them officially 27 members of the banned jihadist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Since June 7th, five alleged members of the JMB have been shot dead by the police.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

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