Ain o Salish Kendra expresses grave concern over the killing of blogger Nazimuddin Samad, who was a law student (evening batch) at Jagannath University. He was killed in old Dhaka’s Sutrapur area.

Reports said that three assailants attacked Nazimuddin with machetes as he was returning home after attending lectures on 6 April 2016. They shot him as he fell on the ground and left the scene. Locals said the attackers were chanting “Allahu Akbar” while shooting Nazimuddin. Nearby traders shut their shops after they heard gunshots and those remained closed when police later visited the scene. Nazimuddin actively wrote online about religious fanaticism and identified himself as the ‘information and research affairs secretary’ of Bangabandhu Jatiya Jubo Parishad’s Sylhet unit. He was also said to have worked as an organiser of Gonojagoron Moncho in Sylhet.

We strongly protest this heinous attack. Bloggers, online activists and publishers faced a series of attacks in 2013 and 2015. The recurrence of such incidents proves that the government and the law enforcement agencies failed to play the appropriate role in probing the previous attacks, identifying the perpetrators and bringing them to book. We think the recurrence of such incidents and lack of necessary and effective measures to ensure safety is creating a strong sense of insecurity among the citizens.

We strongly demand that the perpetrators who attacked and killed bloggers, authors, online activists and publishers be identified soon and brought to justice.