Avijit da, we are still writing
You already have been informed of the murder of Mr. Avijit Roy, writer and freethinker, by the barbaric attack of Islamist hardliners in Dhaka last week. For our international readers, necessary information on his work and career has already been and will be published by other writers in this website, therefore, I will not add any formal view of his life hereafter. This is for the first time I am writing in Muktomona, and it is a tribute, of course, to my hero - as I used to call him - Avijit da (brother). I knew he would stop someday, but this early? Never I imagined. A sharp pang of sorrow has shot through me on hearing his premature passing away. I cried, I got agitated, but then I decided to speak out. I am writing for Avijit da, I am writing for letting those fanatics know that neither Avijit, nor his ideology is dead.
Brutality of religious fanatics
Another most barbaric, most heinous crime had been committed by religious fanatics in the name of religion in full public view on the street of Dhaka. Dr. Avijit Kumar Roy, a Bioengineer presently working in software engineering in the USA, had been brutally murdered as he and his wife were going home at about 9:00 pm on Thursday, 26 February after attending the Ekushey Book Fair and launching his newly published books. They were attacked by two or three assailants with machetes. The Coroner of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, only a short distance away from the crime scene, testified that the attack was an act of a professional killer. Two deep rooted stabs at the back of the skull were so severe that the victim died within a short time from severe bleeding. His wife had also been attacked and she is now in critical condition.
A Note of Salute to Avijit Roy
Yesterday, when my wife was reading news from Bangladesh on the internet, she told me that she was reading about the murder of Avijit Roy in Dhaka. I exclaimed to her, "our Avijit?", got on to internet immediately, and started reading the news myself. I felt like I was having a nightmare, did not want to believe the news to be true.