Four days after American atheist blogger Avijit Roy was murdered in Bangladesh, police have arrested Farabi Shafiur Rahman for the crime.
Rahman “is a fundamentalist blogger,” who allegedly threatened Roy “several times” over Twitter and Facebook, a police spokesman told the Guardian.
Farabi Shafiur Rahman C, Murderer of #AvijitRoy arrested by Bangladesh police at a bus stop at Dhaka today. pic.twitter.com/4BbzvpRDtT
— #ShiningMermaid# 🇮🇳 (@AshiWords) March 2, 2015
https://twitter.com/AmmU_MaanU/status/572383582989099008
Roy, known to some as “the Richard Dawkins of Bangladesh,” wrote 10 books with titles like The Virus of Faith, and kept a blog called Mukto-Mona (Free Mind) about religion and skepticism. He was in Bangladesh on a publicity tour for the country’s national book fair.
Rahman’s no stranger to violently addressing his perceived threats against Islam. After the 2013 murder of another atheist blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, Rahman was arrested for threatening a cleric for arranging Haider’s funeral arrangements.
Roy’s death made headline news in Bangladesh and across the world. Hundreds of activists marched in support of the writer and to demand swift action by police.
Photos of Roy’s murder and the subsequent marches have spread across social media.
“This a great loss…We called him Richard Dawkins of Bangladesh…He was my dearest friend”—Asif Mohiuddin on Avijit Roy pic.twitter.com/WSBCv6Fopv
— Humanists International (@HumanistsInt) February 26, 2015
Standing against Islamism,bloodied Rafida Ahmad wid her husband Avijit Roy http://t.co/7yO6Y3L5Ll http://t.co/lHpOdORbWi
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) February 27, 2015
Avijit Roy shined bright.
— Humanists International (@HumanistsInt) February 27, 2015
They tried to snuff him out.
But his light burns in many hearts. pic.twitter.com/uRKdKj4g5U
H/T The Guardian | Illustration by Max Fleishman
