Steven Emerson, Executive Director September 23, 2015 Articles by IPT |  IPT in the News |  IPT Blog |  Profiles |  Multimedia |  Donate |  Contact Us Bangladesh Group's Hit List Targets More Secular Bloggers Sep 23, 2015 at 4:54 pm http://www.investigativeproject.org/4983/bangladesh-group-hit-list-targets-more-secular Print Send Comment RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. A radical Islamist group in Bangladesh is threatening to take its jihad against secular writers global. The Ansarullah Bangla Team, which is suspected of acting on threats and slaying at least four secular bloggers this year, has released a "hit list" of new targets. American Avijit Roy was among those murdered in 2015. Roy was hacked to death when he returned to Bangladesh for a book fair in February. He, like the other slain bloggers, criticized religious extremism and some tenets of Islam, drawing the wrath of the Bangladesh Islamist group with alleged ties to al-Qaida. Roy's wife, who was injured by survived the attack on her husband, is among those named on the new list, the Guardian reports. The list includes two people living in the United States, one in Canada, one in Sweden and nine in the United Kingdom. Several Ansarullah Bangla members recently were arrested in connection with the killings, but that does not seem to have deterred the group. Its list included what the Guardian described as "an incoherent demand to strip bloggers of their citizenship" in Bangladesh and calls the writers "enemies of Islam and [Muslim religious] education, atheists, apostates, unbelievers, anti-Islamic ... bloggers [and] agents of India." Ansarullah Bangla issued a video called "Eradicate Democracy," which argues democracy is incompatible and in conflict with Islam. Police in Great Britain have advised the bloggers named to be cautious. One writer, Ananya Azad, who left Bangladesh after being warned he was the assassins' "next" target, vowed to continue writing despite the threats. "Our weapon is [the] pen, and we can use it without hurting anybody. We just want to make people conscious about their rights," he told the Guardian. "Fundamentalists have threatened that they will come and kill me. I can't say that I am fully safe, as the fundamentalists know where I am residing. I can't say what will happen in future, but I can give you this assurance that I will write until the end of my life." In addition to Roy, the slain bloggers in 2015 include Niloy Neel, Ananta Bijoy Das and Washiqur Rahman. In 2013, blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was murdered after he advocated for war crimes tribunals against people responsible for mass killings at the end of Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Related Topics: , free speech, Islamist censorship, Bangladesh bloggers, Ansarullah Bangla Team, Avijit Roy, Ananya Azad, Niloy Neel, Ananta Bijoy Das, Washiqur Rahman, Ahmed Rajib Haider The IPT accepts no funding from outside the United States, or from any governmental agency or political or religious institutions. Your support of The Investigative Project on Terrorism is critical in winning a battle we cannot afford to lose. All donations are tax-deductible. Click here to donate online. The Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation is a recognized 501(c)3 organization.   To subscribe: http://www.investigativeproject.org/list_subscribe.php The Investigative Project on Terrorism 202-363-8602 - main 202-966-5191 - fax