Bring the killers to justice:Daily Star

The wife of slain blogger-writer Avijit Roy has demanded that the government do everything in its power to bring the killers to justice. “I do not believe that simply catching the killers will be enough. I urge the government to address terrorism and stop a legal culture of impunity, where writers can be killed without the killers being brought to trial,” Rafida Ahmed Bonya said in a statement. Th
e statement was released yesterday by the Centre for Inquiry (CFI), a non-profit educational, advocacy and research organisation headquartered in New York. In the statement, Bonya also called upon the world to “recognise what has happened” and join them “in this demand for justice”. “My husband, Avijit Roy, wrote about science and rationalism and critiqued religious fundamentalism. Because of this, he was murdered,” she said, adding, “While Avijit and I were being ruthlessly attacked, the local police stood close by and did not act.”   Condemning the gruesome act of terror, Bonya, also a blogger and a freethinker, said they were “attacked in a crowded area on the Dhaka University campus”, a place which she said “has historically been a space for progressive movements”, and where “Avijit grew up”. Advertisement “Despite the death threat, we could not fathom that such a heinous crime could take place in such an area -- a crime not only against a person, but against freedom of speech and humanity,” she said. “We are deeply grateful that Bonya is recovering from her ordeal, and we're honoured to help her share her story and her call for action,” said Michael De Dora, CFI's representative to the United Nations, and a friend of Avijit. Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday ordered the Detective Branch (DB) of police to conduct a test of evidences of the killing of Avijit by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The court also asked the director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital to take an initiative to conduct the DNA test of Avijit's body by the forensic department head of the hospital. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Bikash Kumar Saha came up with the order following two separate petitions submitted by DB Inspector Fazlur Rahman, who is also the investigation officer of the case. Soon after the killing, DB men seized a number of evidences from the place of occurrence. Of them, the FBI will test twelve items, including a sharp weapon, a black school bag and two three-quarter trousers, DB officials in their prayers said. In the petitions, the IO said the FBI showed interest in assisting the DB by testing the evidences seized in connection with the killing of Avijit. He also appealed to the court to conduct a DNA test of Avijit's body. Contacted, Avijit's father Prof Ajoy Roy expressed dissatisfaction over the slow progress in the investigation of his son's murder. “I don't find any progress so far other than the arrest of Farabi,” he told The Daily Star. Krishna Pada Roy, deputy commissioner of DB (South), told BBC Bangla that the initiative to test the evidences in the advanced laboratory of the FBI would play an important role in unravelling the mystery behind the incident and identifying the suspects.