America
Protests demanding arrest of Avijit Roy's killers
Dhaka, March 1
Floral tributes were paid on
Sunday to slain US-based Bangladeshi writer-blogger Avijit Roy at Dhaka
University grounds even as people staged demonstrations demanding the
killers' arrest and a speedy trial.
On Thursday night, Roy and
his wife were dragged off a cycle rickshaw at a Teacher-Student Centre
(TSC) intersection by two unidentified assailants and attacked with
machetes. Roy died of a fatal gash to the head while his wife and fellow
blogger Rafida Ahmed Banna was severely injured.
Roy's body was
taken Sunday noon to the footpath next to where he was brutally hacked.
People paid floral tributes to the slain writer-blogger and staged a
demonstration at the spot -- a platform in front of the Aparajyeo Bangla
at Dhaka University -- chanting slogans and demanding the arrest of the
killers and their speedy trial, bdnews24.com reported.
At the end of the protest, lasting about half-an-hour, the body was taken to his father Ajay Roy's house at Siddheshwary.
Finally,
the body was taken to the DMCH mortuary, as per Roy's wishes and after
his family deciding to donate it for medical research.
Sammilito
Sangskritik Jote organised the tributes programme as a mark of respect
to the writer, noted for his writings against communalism.
Roy
and his wife were hacked on the footpath next to the Suhrawardy Udyan, a
few metres away from the tightly secured Amar Ekushey Book Fair and
Shahbagh Police Station February 26.
Roy died at the DMCH, while his severely injured wife was being treated at the Square Hospital.