BANGLADESH — UPDATE: Bangladesh’s officials have announced they have arrested an Islamist over last week’s murder of the atheist American blogger Avijit Roy, accusing him of being behind earlier death threats on social media, this, according to AFP.
“He is the main suspect” in the killing of Roy, said a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) after Farabi Shafiur Rahman was arrested in the capital Dhaka.
EARLIER REPORT:
Bangladeshi-born US citizen, Avijit Roy was killed after being attacked with machetes while walking through Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka. He was with his wife, who is also a blogger. She is in serious condition after her left hand fingers were severed in the knife attack.
Roy was an atheist blogger who was highly critical of Islamic extremism.
According to Sky News:
Police retrieved two blood-stained machetes from the site.
The militant group Ansar Bangla 7 claimed responsibility for the attack, police said.
Mr Roy “was the target because of his crime against Islam”, the group said on Twitter.
Roy, who lived in the United States, came to Bangladesh on February 16 to attend the book fair and was scheduled to leave the country on February 29.
