Avijit Roy’s murder was planned well ahead

Bangladesh’s State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Saturday that Blogger-writer Avijit Roy’s murder was planned well ahead.

Speaking at an event organised by the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Saturday, he said: “There were several people present during the attack on Avijit. This was a planned murder.”

He said that another person, apart from fundamentalist blogger Farabi Shafiur Rahman, was arrested over the murder and a list of suspects had been prepared, bdnews24.com reported.

Bioengineer Roy, a US citizen, had been receiving threats from radicals for secular blogging. Two of his books were published at this year’s Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka. Assailants attacked him and his wife on Feb 26 at Dhaka University (DU) campus, while they were returning from the book fair.

He died soon after being rushed to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospitals. His wife and fellow blogger Rafida Ahmed Banna, also a US citizen, was seriously injured and went back to the US for better treatment.The US offered to help with the investigations, to which the Bangladesh government gave its nod. On Friday, an FBI team visited the crime scene at the heart of the university campus.