Unknown assailants stabbed Publisher Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, a close friend and publisher of slain Bangladesh-born US writer and blogger Avijit Roy, and two other bloggers in his office in Lalmatia area of Dhaka on Saturday afternoon.
The grievously wounded victims Ahmedur Rashid Tutul, 43, publisher of Shuddhaswar, and bloggers Ronovipom Basu, 50, and Tareque Rahim, 30, are receiving treatment at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. The condition of one of them is said to be critical.
Ahmedur Rashid Tutul’s publishing house ‘Suddhaswar’ had, secular writer Avijit Roy among its authors, who was hacked to death on the Dhaka University campus in February this year.
They all were hacked on the head, said Sentu Das, an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the hospital’s police camp. The attack took place at the office of Shuddhwashawr in Lalmatia, Block- C, between 2:30-3:00pm, Shamim Runa, Tutul’s wife told journalists.
Local sources said that a group of men stormed into the office and pinned a gun on his head to begin the assault.
Witnesses said that the assailants hacked Tutul before locking up him and a few others in the office from outside.
Police rushed to spot and rescued three people from the spot and took them to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Mohammadpur police station office in-charge (OC) Jamal Uddin Mir told journalists.
Sources said that bloodstains were found in the room. Residents of the building told him they had also heard gunshots
Later, policemen of the Mohammadpur police station sent the injured to the hospital. Mohammadpur police station’s Sub-Inspector (SI) Al Mamun said, “I took two of them to hospital stained with blood. Cut marks were found in their hands.”
The unidentified assailants stabbed them with sharp weapons, he added. Tutul had filed a complaint with police after being threatened with death on Facebook, following the attack on Roy and his wife earlier this year.
This is the fourth incident of grisly attacks within one month after the murders of Italian aid worker Tavelle Ceaser in Gulshan diplomatic zone, and Japanese national Kunio Hoshi in Rangpur district, and the murder attempt on a pastor in Pabna district and the bomb attack on Shia Muslim community during Ashura that left two dead.
The attack on free thinkers began with the killing of Rajib Haider in February 2013, followed by similar attacks on Avijit Roy, Wasiqur Rahman Babu and Ananta Bijoy Das, Niladree Chattarjee this year.
Investigations revealed that Islamist radicals were behind Roy’s murder.