Ahmed Rajib Haider

Ahmed Rajib Haider
আহমেদ রাজিব হায়দার
Died(2013-02-15)15 February 2013
Palashnagar, Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh
NationalityBangladeshi
EducationBachelor of Architecture
Alma materUniversity of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh.
OccupationArchitect

Ahmed Rajib Haider (died 15 February 2013) was a Bangladeshi atheist blogger.[1] He used to blog in the blogging communities namely somewhereinblog.net, amarblog.com and nagorikblog.com[2] and used the pseudonym Thaba Baba.[3]

On 15 February 2013, after comments he posted online about religious fundamentalism, he was hacked to death by machete-wielding terrorists from a militant group named Ansarullah Bangla Team. He was the first protester killed during the Shahbag movement.[4][5]

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.[6] The protests were opposed by Islamic groups, who organised counter marches under the banner of a newly formed group called Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh.[7]

On 30 December 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.[8] Rana had absconded and was sentenced in absentia. Another member of the outlawed outfit, Maksudul Hasan was also found guilty of murder and given a life sentence.[8] Six other members of ABT, including firebrand leader Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani, received jail terms of five to ten years.[9]

  1. ^ "Four killed in 'blasphemous bloggers' riot in Bangladesh". news.com.au. 23 February 2013. Archived from the original on 26 January 2014. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  2. ^ "Shahbagh Blogger murdered". The Daily Ittefaq. 16 February 2013. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  3. ^ Geeta Anand; Julfikar Ali Manik (8 June 2016), "Bangladesh Says It Now Knows Who's Killing the Bloggers", The New York Times, archived from the original on 17 January 2017, retrieved 26 February 2017
  4. ^ Yallaoui, Safia Yallaoui (12 April 2013). "Bangladesh Prime Minister faces pressure to kill blasphemous bloggers". Western Eye. University of the West of England. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  5. ^ "Blogger Rajib's 'killers' linked to al-Qaeda: DB". The Daily Star. 15 March 2013. Archived from the original on 18 March 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  6. ^ Shahidul Alam (28 February 2013). "A 40-Year Quest for Justice". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference ct was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b "Death for Bangladesh blogger killers". BBC News. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  9. ^ "2 sentenced to death for killing secular blogger in Bangladesh". dna. 31 December 2015. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2016.