After the ouster of Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister, the first fair parliamentary election in over a decade resulted in a newly elected government. Whether this will lead to positive changes for Bangladesh remains to be seen, but the new government has a legal and moral responsibility to address all the injustices committed during the Awami League’s tenure.
Today, as we remember and pay tribute to Avijit Roy, we stand firm in our insistence that justice be done for Avijit and the countless progressives who have been silenced through the Awami League’s cozy relationship with the country’s extreme Islamists.
Avijit Roy was one of the preeminent Bengali intellectuals who made lasting contributions to advancing the progressive struggle in Bangladesh and beyond. A radical freethinker and a prodigious writer, Avijit Roy inspired his readers to question dominant ideas about morality, faith, and identity. In highly accessible language, he introduced Bengali-speaking readers to ideas grounded in science and empirical research, precipitating an epistemic shift in their worldviews. As a progressive publishing house, Shuddhashar had the opportunity and privilege to publish a number of his books, whose topics ranged from the origins of the universe to the science behind same-sex attraction. Some of his books, freely available on Shuddhashar’s website, continue to be downloaded and read by Bangladeshis around the world.
An inspirational figure for progressive Bangladeshis, Avijit drew the ire of reactionary forces in the country. Eleven years ago, on this day, Avijit Roy was brutally hacked to death in Dhaka by members of a radical Islamist outfit while he was on his way home from the annual Ekushey Book Fair. His wife, Bonya Ahmed, another popular writer and intellectual, was seriously injured while trying to save his life during the attack.
His death marked the beginning of a terrifying time for progressives in Bangladesh. Several of his colleagues met the same brutal fate in 2015. Over time, others fled into exile, and numerous writers and publishers resorted to self-censorship.
After eleven years, Avijit’s killers still have not been held accountable. The investigation was muddied, the trial of those captured was conducted haphazardly, and the masterminds behind his killing remain at large. In a bizarre move, the interim government in 2024 released on bail, by order of the High Court, a convict in Avijit’s murder case who had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
We urge the current government to open reinvestigations into all the attacks on writers, publishers, and activists that took place between 2013 and 2016. This is necessary so that the perpetrators are held accountable and the families of the victims receive long-awaited justice.
It is also necessary for the health of Bangladesh. By allowing space for dissent and critical scholarship to flourish, the government must actively work to mitigate the damage wrought by the previous authoritarian regime and restore the country’s progressive intellectual culture to its former vitality.
For Bangladesh, returning to democracy also means that no one else will meet the same tragic fate as Avijit and his slain colleagues; that freethinkers will no longer be muzzled, arrested, or driven into exile; and that progressive publishers will be allowed to operate without fear. For the democratic spirit to flourish, Bangladeshi society at large must practice the art of freethinking that Avijit championed.
Avijit Roy’s spirit, and the ideas he held fast to, remain alive in each and every one of us. We must keep going—in his honor and for future generations.
