I will not be quiet, says wife of murdered Bangladeshi blogger

Rafida Ahmed, wife of Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death by suspected Islamic extremists on the streets of Dhaka in late February, has said that she has no plans to be quiet after the horrific incident.

In an interview with BBC Radio, Rafida, who received heavy stabs on her head and even got her thumb severed in the attack, described the incident which has raised eyebrows about the safety of critics of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority country. Roy, an engineer of Bangladeshi origin and has US citizenship, was returning from a book fair along with his wife when they were attacked by machete-wielding assailants. Roy later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Dhaka.

“We were supposed to go back home and have dinner with the family. I think I was holding his hand and talking. And then I do not remember anything from that point until I was in some sort of vehicle and someone was carrying me. I remember I was soaked in blood,” Rafida said in the radio interview.

In a trembling voice, Rafida said that her “biggest fear is to go through that memory.” “My heart still races so fast when I do,” she said.

In the interview, Rafida described her husband as “an intellecually fulfiled atheist who dedicated his life to science and secularism” and remarked that it is time for a re-evaluation as a pattern of such attacks was clearly emerging.

Source:: Indian Express