Press Trust of India
Dhaka, August 10: Bangladesh police have asked secular bloggers not to “cross the limit” while writing on religious issues, even as authorities failed to make any headway in the brutal murder of a fourth blogger who hacked to death by suspected al-Qaeda-linked Islamists. “Do not cross the limit. Do not hurt anyone’s religious belief,” Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said. The “freethinkers” should keep in mind that hurting someone’s religious sentiment is a criminal offence, Bdnews quoted Hoque as saying. On the killing of blogger Niloy Chakrabarty Neel, Hoque said police were investigating it “with top priority”.
Neel was hacked to death by four assailants inside his flat in the capital’s Goran area Friday. He is the fourth blogger to have been killed this year. Apart from Neel, other bloggers killed this year are Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman and Ananta Bijoy Das. Hours after the gruesome attack, Ansar-Al-Islam, the Bangladesh chapter of al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, had claimed responsibility for killing 40-year-old Neel, terming him an enemy of Allah.