Ahmed Rajib Haider
| Ahmed Rajib Haider | |
|---|---|
| Native name | আহমেদ রাজীব হায়দার |
| Died | 15 February 2013 Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh |
| Nationality | Bangladeshi |
| Education | Bachelor of Architecture |
| Alma mater | University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh. |
| Occupation | Architect |
Ahmed Rajib Haider (died 15 February 2013) was an atheist blogger from Bangladesh. He used to blog in the blogging communities namely Somewhereinblog.net, Amarblog.com and Nagorikblog.com and used the pseudonym Thaba Baba.
On 15 February 2013, after comments he posted online about religious fundamentalism, he was hacked to death by machete-wielding activists from a militant group associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami party.
An architect by profession, Haider's blog was among those that ignited the 2013 Shahbag protests. The protesters were seeking trials for the perpetrators of the mass killings during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, a move that was widely seen as aimed at radical Islamists. The protests were opposed by Islamic groups, who organised counter marches under the banner of a newly formed group called Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh.
On Dec 30, 2015, after almost three years, two members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, Md Faisal Bin Nayem and Redwanul Azad Rana, were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Faisal, the court said, was the one who attacked Haider with a meat cleaver. Rana had absconded and was sentenced in absentia. Another member of the outlawed outfit, Maksudul Hasan was also guilty of murder and given a life sentence. Six other members of ABT, including firebrand leader Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani received jail terms of five to ten years.
On the night of 15 February 2013, Haider was attacked as he was leaving his house in the Mirpur area of Dhaka. His body was found lying in a pool of blood, mutilated to the point that his friends could not recognise him. The following day, his coffin was carried through Shahbagh Square in a public protest by more than 100,000 people. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited his family in Palashnagar, Dhaka, and promised action.
On 2 March, the Bangladesh Detective bureau arrested five members of the newly formed extremist organisation Ansarullah Bangla Team for the murder. The organisation was an offshoot of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, a student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party. The group takes its ideology from Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based Al-Qaeda activist who was killed in 2011. Detectives said that the attack was masterminded by the Islamic Chhatra Shibir leader 'Rana' from Jamaat-e-Islami's youth wing, who had not been located two months after the event.
...
Wikipedia