Ensure justice, stop the crime

They called on the Bangladeshi authorities to swiftly and impartially investigate Ananta's death as well as the murders of Oyasiqur and Avijit, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice in accordance with international fair trial standards.

“We also demand that the authorities do all in their power to provide protection and support to bloggers and other writers at risk in Bangladesh, in accordance with Bangladesh's obligations under national and international law,” read the letter.

Speaking to The Guardian via email, Booker-winning novelist Yaan Martel explained that he added his name to the letter because of “the egregious nature of the offence … something must be done urgently”.

“I also added my name for a more practical reason…. The government of Bangladesh might be more subject to influence because of this letter than a government in the West, where letters, petitions and appeals and the like are always flying about, and politicians grown inured to them. My hope is that the government of Sheikh Hasina might actually be mortified by this letter.”

The authors' letter comes hard on the heels of the brutal killing of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das in Sylhet in quick succession of two more grisly attacks those took away the lives of Oyasiqur and Avijit over the last three months.

“We were shocked and horrified by the murder of 32-year-old blogger and editor Ananta Bijoy Das, who was hacked to death on his way to work by a masked gang wielding machetes in the city of Sylhet on 12 May. Prior to his death, Das had reportedly received a number of death threats from Islamist militants, and his name had appeared in two assassination lists published in the Bangladeshi media, alongside those of other secular bloggers described as anti-Islamic and blasphemous,” the letter noted.

“Just months earlier, on 26 February, Avijit Roy, a fellow blogger and close friend of Das, was similarly killed. Roy and his wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonya, were viciously attacked by unknown assailants close to Dhaka University. Roy died soon afterwards and his wife was severely injured. A militant Islamist group has reportedly claimed the responsibility for the attack.”

“A month later, on 29 March, blogger Oyasiqur Rahman Babu was murdered just 500 yards from his home in Begunbari, Dhaka. Police have claimed that the attackers targeted the 27-year-old blogger because they believed he had defamed Islam through his writings on websites, forums and social media. Two students from a madrasa [an Islamic school] have since been arrested in connection with Rahman's killing.”

At least three other writers have been attacked or murdered in Bangladesh since 2013 and although there have been several arrests, no one has been held to account for any of these attacks, the letter pointed out.

“We are gravely concerned by this escalating pattern of violence against writers and journalists who are peacefully expressing their views. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right under Bangladesh's constitution and under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said the renowned authors.

The Guardian quoted Jo Glanville, director of English PEN, describing the recent attacks as “a campaign of violence against bloggers and writers who are courageous enough to speak out in a hostile culture for free speech.”

“The government of Bangladesh must urgently address the climate of impunity and be seen to safeguard freedom of expression…. These shocking events have united writers throughout the world in an important show of solidarity,” she added.

The Guardian approached the Bangladesh High Commission in London for comment on the open letter, but the mission did not respond. 

PEN International is the world's leading association of writers, working to promote literature and defend freedom of expression around the world.

PEN was founded by the British poet, playwright and peace activist C.A. Dawson-Scott, as an international club providing space for writers to share ideas and as a forum, uniting writers irrespective of their culture, language or political opinion.

With 149 PEN centres in over 100 countries worldwide, the platform connects an international community of writers from its Secretariat in London.

Writers who signed the open letter on blogger murders

Elisabeth Abendroth, Jim Aitken, Truijens Aleid, Frank Mackay Anim-Appiah, Frankie Asare-Donkoh, president, Ghana PEN Centre; Margaret Atwood, Michael Augustin, Dr Hanan Awwad, president, Palestine PEN; Cecilia Balc​ázar, Elke Bannach, María Cecilia Barbetta, Niels Barfoed, Shrabani Basu, Nazmi Bayrı, Ronald Bos, Marian Botsford Fraser, chair of Writers in Prison Committee, PEN International; Suzanne Brøgger, Dr Barbara Bronnen, Ricky Brown, Urvashi Butalia, Joyce Caplan, Metin Cengiz, Sudeep Chakravarty, Anne Clarke, Jennifer Clement, Jo Clifford, Anne Connolly, Daniela Dahn, Swapan Dasgupta, Rachna Davidar, Aline Davidoff, president, PEN Mexico;  Alexis de Roode, Siddharta Deb, Job Degenaar, Antonio Della Rocca, president, PEN Trieste; Renan Demirkan, Meghnad Desai, Faisal Devji, Dr Mathias Schreiber, Dr Burkhart Veigel, Suzanne Egerton, John Elliott, Peter Englund, Haydar Ergülen, Roberto Fabris, Moris Farhi, Fahimeh Farsaie, Charles Foran, Öyvind Foss, Maureen Freely, president, English PEN, Uwe Friesel, Jostein Gaarder, Meenakshi Ganguly, Nina George, Amitav Ghosh, Jo Glanville, director, English PEN; Brigitte C Gotthold, Fiona Graham, Gloria Guardia, Michael Guggenheimer, Apar Gupta, Daniel Hahn, Kaiser Haq, Josef Haslinger, president, German PEN, Gert Heidenreich, Christoph Hein, Hallgrímur Helgason, Werner Holzer, Jules Horne, Iman Humaydan, Khademul Islam, member, Bangladesh PEN; Anjali Joseph, Wim Jurg, Sirpa Kähkönen, president, Finnish PEN; Raghu Karnad, Lucina Kathmann, Jan Kemp, Andrej Khadanovich, president, Belarusian PEN; Charlie King, Tanja Kinkel, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Sibylle Knauss, Christoph König, Anja Kovacs, Hari Kunzru, Ola Larsmo, president, Swedish PEN, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Joan Lingard, Chiara Macconi, Kona Macphee, Rishi Majumder, Emile Martel, president, Quebec PEN, Yann Martel, Christine McKenzie, president, PEN Melbourne, Kyle Mewburn, president, PEN NZ, Alison Miller, Sam Miller, Denise Mina, Rohinton Mistry, Petra Morsbach, Lina Morselli, Neel Mukherjee, Ayten Mutlu, Maureen Myant, Vayoo Naidu, Hege Newth Nouri, William Nygaar, president, Norwegian PEN; Harry Oberländer, Hans-Christian Oeser, Vida Ognjenovic, Per Øhrgaard, president, Danish PEN, Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir, Zeynep Oral, president, PEN Turkey; Margie Orford, president, PEN South Africa; Mete Özel, Kaiser ÖzHun, Ra Page, founder, Comma Press; Peter Parker, Per Petterson, Tom Pow, Lutz Götze, Gabriele Pommerin-Götze, Christoph Lindenmeyer, Jean Rafferty, Anita Raghawan, Ashis Ray, Monika Rinck, Judith Rodriguez, Thomas Rothschild, Nilanjana Roy, Anuradha Roy, Elisabeth Ruge, Salman Rushdie, Gita Sahgal, Minoli Salgado, Alejandro Sánchez-Aizcorbe, Ulrike Sandig, Philippe Sands QC, Ashwin Sanghi, Rajdeep Sardesai, Ayse Sarisayan, Carole Satyamurthy, John Ralston Saul, president, PEN International; Samantha Schnee, Christa Schuenke, Andrew Sclater, Sjón, president, Icelandic PEN; Morelle Smith, Claire Squires, Elizabeth Starcevic, Leslie Stevenson, Liam Stewart, Klaus Theweleit, Annika Thor, Elsa Tió, Pragya Tiwari, Colm Tóibín, Carles Torner, director, PEN International; Salil Tripathi, Cynthia Troup, Aleid Truijens, Tina Uebel, Linn Ullmann, Manon Uphoff, president, PEN Netherlands;  Amir Valle Ojeda, Karthika VK, Martin A Völker, Gabriele von Arnim, Catherine Vuylsteke, Per Wästberg, Harry Watson, Herbert Wiesner, Les Wilson, Yazici Yasemin, Halim Yazıcı, Çetin Yiğenoğlu, Arnold Zable and Atiya Zaidi.