The US Federal Bureau of Investigation intends to get involved with the investigation into the murder of blogger-writer Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-born US citizen.
On Friday, an FBI official stationed in Dhaka contacted the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
“The official wanted to know how FBI could assist us in completing the investigation,” said Shibli Noman, an assistant commissioner at the DMP.
Avijit’s father Ajay Roy, a noted educationist and former professor of physics at Dhaka University, yesterday said he had received a phone call from the US embassy in Dhaka.
“Embassy officials have talked to me over the phone and expressed their interest in getting the FBI involved with the investigation,” Ajay said.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the US embassy in Dhaka strongly condemned Avijit’s murder, terming it “horrific in brutality and cowardice.”
The statement said: “Avijit was a journalist, a humanist, a husband and a friend, and we extend our condolences to his family and friends. He was taken from us in a shocking act of violence.
“This was not just an attack against a person, but a cowardly assault on the universal principles enshrined in Bangladesh’s constitution and the country’s proud tradition of free intellectual and religious discourse,” the statement read.
On Thursday night, miscreants still to be identified hacked Avijit to death near the TSC roundabout on the DU campus and critically injured his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonna, also a Bangladesh-born US citizen and writer.
Family and friends said the blogger-writer had been receiving threats from Islamist extremists for several years, especially from a militant named Farabi Shafiur Rahman with whom Avijit had had debates over religion.
Prof Ajay yesterday filed a general diary with the Ramna police station saying he had also received threats. He said this was nothing new for him; he had received similar threats in the past as well. “Even on Thursday night, someone called me up on my mobile phone, and said Avijit was attacked for his anti-Islamic propaganda. If I did not come to their path, they said I would also have to bear the same fate.”
More than two days into the brutal killing, police have made no progress whatsoever in the investigation, much to the disappointment of the family.
The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police that is investigating the murder has not managed to trace any of the killers; neither has anyone been arrested as of yesterday.
“We have not made any significant progress and the time has not come to say anything concrete,” Krishnapada Roy, a deputy commissioner of DB, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
While talking to reporters at his residence yesterday, Prof Ajay said: “They [DB] have the lists of criminals. They can arrest them any time, but they are not doing it.”
Hinting militant involvement, police said the way Avijit was assaulted was similar to how progressive writer Humayun Azad was assaulted at the same location in 2004 and blogger Rajib Haider in Mirpur in 2013.
Questions were raised over the police’s rolem as witnesses say there were several law enforcers nearby when the attack took place.
DMP Assistant Commissioner Shibly Noman said around 40 CCTV cameras have been maintaining surveillance on and around the book fair. But the spot where Avijit was killed was a blank spot.
“We are now analysing footage from the CCTV cameras to find out if any of the assailants could be traced,” Shibly said.
Hours after the attack, a Twitter account titled Ansar Bangla-7 cheered for the murder and termed it an “achievement.” A series of tweets described it as a punishment for Avijit’s “crime against Islam.” But the account was found deactivated yesterday.
In November last year, Ansarullah Bangla Team, another online entity with a similar name, claimed the responsibility of killing Rajshahi University professor Shafiul Islam.
Shafiul, also known for his progressive thinking and research, was killed in a similar fashion – hacked with machetes on the head and neck.
Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of DB, told the Dhaka Tribune that they suspected the same outfits had murdered Rajib Haider and Avijit. “There is no difference between the two killings. It may be that another unit of the Ansarullah Bangla Team has done it.”
