A
Bangladeshi-American blogger was today laid to rest after he was hacked
to death by Islamists in Dhaka over his vocal opposition to religious
extremism.
Hundreds
of mourners gathered around the coffin of Avijit Roy, a U.S. citizen of
Bangladeshi origin, after he was murdered in the street last week on
his way home from a book fair.
His
wife and fellow blogger, Rafida Ahmed, remains in hospital in a serious
condition after she suffered head injuries and lost a finger in the
attack.
Mourning: Flowers are laid on the
coffin of Avijit Roy, the atheist blogger hacked to death in the street
in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, as he returned with his wife from a
book fair on Thursday evening
Grief: Friends and relatives of Mr Roy
sob as mourners come to pay respects to the writer, whose murder came
amid a crackdown on Bangladesh's resurgent Islamist groups
Anguish: Mr Roy's father Ajoy Roy,
seated right, is comforted by fellow mourners at his son's funeral
earlier today. Hundreds came to see Mr Roy's coffin at Dhaka University
and lay flowers before his burial
U.S. citizen: Mr Roy with his wife
Rafida Ahmed on holiday together at the Grand Canyon. She remains in
hospital in a serious condition after she suffered head injuries and
lost a finger in the attack
The
murder of Mr Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism in Bangladesh,
came amid a crackdown on the country's Islamist groups after they
increased their activities in recent years.
A
resident of Atlanta, Georgia, Mr Roy came to visit Dhaka, the city of
his birth, in the middle of last month and had been due to soon return
home.
Today mourners carried flowers to his coffin at Dhaka University to pay their respects.
'Free
thinking in Bangladesh is become a great danger, all the free thinkers
are at great risk,' writer Shahriar Kabir told Reuters.
'We
want to know why the government failed to ensure the safety of him,
despite knowing that he had been facing threats from the Islamist
radicals.'
No
arrest has so far been made. People also held a demonstration at the
spot where he was killed and chanted slogans demanding 'immediate arrest
and quick trial of the perpetrator'.
Mr
Roy's family said Islamist radicals had threatened him over his blog,
'Mukto-mona,' or 'Freemind,' that highlighted humanist and rationalist
ideas and condemned religious extremism.
The
naturalised U.S. citizen, who was a bio-engineer as well as a blogger,
had been receiving death threats online for years. Mr Roy and his wife
have a daughter at university in the U.S.
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