Govt silently supports blogger killing: Ajay Roy

The government has silent support for the killing of bloggers and writers, said Professor Ajay Roy, father of the murdered writer-blogger Avijit Roy.
Ajay Roy, a former physics teacher of Dhaka University, was speaking at a seminar organised by Bangladesh Pragati Lekhak Sangha (Bangladesh Progressive Writers’ Association) on 'Free speech under attack: state remains silent', at the university’s RC Majumdar auditorium.
Ajay Roy came down hard on prime minister's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy for branding Avijit an ‘atheist’.
“The prime minister's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy termed Avijit a self-proclaimed atheist and said that Awami League did not practice such politics. Such irrelevant remarks of Joy go in favour of the bloggers’ killing,” Ajay Roy said.
“Avijit was a freethinking writer. His writings are very powerful. If you (Joy) do not have strength to write like him, you have no right to make this kind of unwarranted,” Ajay added.

Avijit’s father also pointed out that the government did not issue any official protest against the bloggers’ killing.

“If this is so, why won’t we assume the government has silent support for the killing of bloggers?” Ajay questioned.

“After Avijit's murder, prime minister Sheikh Hasina and other eminent personalities expressed their sympathy for me, but this was not highlighted in the media,” Ajay told the seminar.

“Why was so? Perhaps the government was showing its silent support for the blogger killing,” he said.

Ajay said he was trying to get justice for his son’s murder.

“On behalf of all of us, I am trying to have the culprits involved in Avijit murder tried. Recently, I contacted the intelligence agencies,” Ajay said.

“It is sure that two persons were directly involved with Avijit murder and one has been identified by law enforcers as the assistant of the murderers, However, law enforcing agencies are yet to arrest any of them.” Ajay said.

Prof MM Akash of DU’s economics department said, “There are two types of freethinkers. One is Islam-centric Jamaat-Shibir’s freethinkers and the other is people like Avijit practising secularism.”

“We have to fight for freethinkers of secularism and we must win the fight,” Akash added.