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Widow of slain Bangladeshi-American blogger lashes out at Dhaka
[DAWN] On a recent evening in a Midwestern United States city, a middle-aged woman with bandaged arms and a missing thumb entered a crowded restaurant. Nearby, children colored with crayons. Waiters rushed by.The maimed woman, Rafida Ahmed, scanned the room nervously. The Atlanta financial executive has been hiding since Islamic Death Eaters wielding machetes attacked her on Feb. 26 in her native Bangladesh. During the assault, her husband ─ the Bangladeshi-American secular activist and blogger Avijit Roy ─ was hacked to death. Ahmed sustained four head wounds, and her left thumb was sliced off. On May 3, the Indian-born head of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent grabbed credit for a string attacks in Bangladesh and Pakistain, including Roy's. The murder of Roy, an atheist who published a popular and provocative blog, marks an escalation by Islamist Death Eaters for control of Bangladesh. Religious fundamentalists are competing daily with secular government officials for power in the majority-Moslem country, one of the world's largest and poorest democracies. In her first extensive interview since the attack, Ahmed criticized the Bangladeshi government for not responding more aggressively to her husband's slaying. "This was well planned, choreographed - a global act of terrorism," she said. "But what almost bothers me more is that no one from the Bangladesh government has reached out to me. It's as if I don't exist, and they are afraid of the bad boys. Is Bangladesh going to be the next Pakistain or Afghanistan?" Posted by: Fred 2015-05-12 |
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