Amidst the heat of protests against the killing of three secular blogger till May this year, the Bangladesh government in Dhaka has banned an Islamist militant group named Ansarullah Bangla Team (volunteer of Allah Bangla team) for disruptive activities. The Sheikh Hasina led government under a notification (issued on 25 May 2015), declared that the terror outfit was banned under the Bangladesh’s Anti-Terrorist Act, 2013.

The local media in Bangladesh reported the slaughtering of third blogger in that country this year by the masked assailants on 12 May last. The victim Ananta Bijoy Das (33), who was a banker by profession, was hacked to death at Subid Bazar locality of Sylhet city in northeast Bangladesh. At least four musketeers chased Das as he was moving for his office in the morning hours and attacked him with sharp weapons in full public view. Injured Das was sent to a local hospital, but the attending doctors declared him brought dead.
The Sylhet based talented blogger used to edit a Bengali periodical titled Jukti (means logic) and also wrote for Mukto-Mona, an internet blog developed and moderated by  late atheist blogger Dr Avijit Roy, who too faced a similar end three months back in Dhaka. Das, who also campaigned for banning the Islamist parties, was reportedly threatened by some religious extremists for his activities.
Prior to Das, the religious fanatics killed the US based blogger Dr Roy (43) on February 26,where  his accompanying wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya was seriously injured and another Bangladeshi activist-writer Washiqur Rahman Babu (27) on March 30  in the national capital. The only visible reason for their brutal murder was that they were free-thinkers and raised questions against the fundamentalists belonged to all religions including the Islam.
Born to a Hindu family in 1972, Dr Roy completed his education in Bangladesh and later migrated to America. An engineer by profession and blogger by passion Dr Roy was a rational thinker and a popular science writer. He started Mukto-Mona (www.mukto-mona.com), a Bengali language blog (meaning free thinker) to propagate rationalism and promote secular writings.
“We are against all kinds of social injustices, religious and oppressive dogmas, doctrines, and discriminations. We critique everything that hinders people’s access to civil liberty, freedom, democracy and secularism. We take a strong stand against all kinds of human rights violations such as oppression of ethnic/religious minority community and gender-based discriminations against women, homosexuals and others,” said the mission statement of the blog.
A travel agency worker by profession Washiqur Rahman used to write about science and satirical pieces about religion. Blogged under pen-name Kutsit Haser Chana (meaning ugly duckling), Rahman often criticized irrational religious belief and practices, those of Islam too. He also advocated for reforms in various Islamic laws across the globe.
Bangladesh reported the first killing of a blogger in 2013, when Ahmed Rajib Haider, an architect by profession and blogger by passion, was eliminated by the miscreants at the peak of Shahbagh (Gonojagoron Mancha) movement demanding stringent punishments to the war criminals.
Thousands of Bangladeshi progressive youths assembled at Shahbagh point of Dhaka city for many days asking death penalties to the Rajakars, who killed millions of Bangladeshi freedom fighters with the
favour from Pakistani forces. Another blogger Asif  Mohiuddin was targeted by suspected Islamist activists in March 2013, but the award winning writer-activist succeeded in escaping though received serious injuries. Mohiuddin also raised various questions about different aspects of Islam in the internet and invited enmity from the religious fanatics. Some other victims of ultra religious fundamentalists in Bangladesh include
Ziauddin Zakaria Babu,  Arif Hossain Dwip,  Jagatjyoti Talukder, Jafar Munshi, Mamun Hossain and Shafiul Islam.
Bangladesh, which is a Muslim dominated country with 160 million population, emerged as a sovereign nation after a blood-soaked freedom struggle (Muktijuddha) in 1971, where three million people lost their lives. At the same time, over 200,000 Bangladeshi women were raped by Pakistani military forces. One of the important reasons behind the uprising was the imposition of Urdu as the official language in East Pakistan (previous name of Bangladesh) by the West Pakistani forces.
The British ruled India was divided into two nations after its independence in 1947 where India (Bharat) adopted the secularism, but Pakistan preferred to be an Islamic republic. When Bangladesh was born
out of Pakistan in 1971 Muktijuddha, its founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman introduced their nation as a secular democracy.
However,  Mujibur Rahman’s rule in Bangladesh was short lived as he was killed in a coup along with his entire family members except his daughter Hasina Sheikh (now Bangladesh Prime Minister) and General
Ziaur Rahman took over the charge. Bangabandhu’s trusted associate General Zia soon established the military rule in Bangladesh. He also amended the constitution in 1975 where the first principle of
Bangladesh was declared with ‘high ideals of absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah’.

Later by 1988, the military dictator HM Ershad introduced Islam as Bangladesh’s state religion.
Islamic influences into the Bangladesh politics were nurtured and propagated by Jamaat-e-Islami, which was once an ally to Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Khaleda Zia, the widow of General Zia.
Though claimed as a secular democratic nation, Bangladesh’s legal system continues to be partially influenced by various Islamic laws.
Contrary to the grave situation, the Awami League government led by Sheikh  Hasina in Dhaka did not condemn the killings and even avoided expressing any official sympathy to the victim families. The Prime
Minster,  who assumed power in 2009 and was ‘re-elected’ in 2014, understood that many Bangladeshi nationals were sympathetic to ultra Islamists. Hence the government maintained silence over the media
reports that a local Islamist outfit (Ansarullah Bangla Team) was responsible for the assassinations of the bloggers.
But the international protests against the killing of bloggers in Bangladesh started gaining momentum. From UN agencies to the international media bodies, rights bodies to civil society groups, everybody condemned the killings. A group of acclaimed writers and journalists from different parts of the globe also came out together
to express their grave concern over the escalating pattern of violence against the bloggers in Bangladesh.
In a letter to Bangladesh government, the group pointed out that ‘freedom of expression was a fundamental right under Bangladesh’s constitution and under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.
Signed by Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood,  Yann Martell,  Amitav Ghosh, Swapan Dasgupta, Neel Mukherjee,  Meghnad Desai, Rajdeep Sardesai, Shrabani Basu, Urvashi Butalia, Sudeep Chakravarty, Rachna
Davidar, signed by Siddharta Deb, Faisal Devji, Meenakshi Ganguly, Nina George, Apar Gupta, Kaiser Haq, Anjali Joseph, Vayoo Naidu, Anita Raghawan, Ashis Ray, Nilanjana Roy, Anuradha Roy, Gita Sahgal etc the
letter called on Bangla government to ensure that the tragic events of the last three months are not repeated, and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“We call on the Bangladeshi authorities to swiftly and impartially investigate Das’s death as well as the murders of Roy and Babu, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice in accordance with international fair trial standards. We also demand that the authorities do all in their power to provide protection and support to
bloggers and other writers at risk in Bangladesh, in accordance with Bangladesh’s obligations under national and international law,” added the letter.
Facing series of protests both in home-ground and international arena, the Bangladesh government took some firm steps against the acts of terrorism. Following the recommendations from the Bangladesh police, the government has banned banned Ansarullah Bangla Team suspecting its role in the serial murder of atheist bloggers. The police argued that the ultraconservative Islamist outfit was responsible for multiple attacks on secular academics and writers over the years.
Prior to Ansarullah Bangla Team, five other extremist outfits namely Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Hizb ut Tahrir, Harkatul Jihad Bangladesh,  Shahadat e-Al-Hikma and Jagrata Muslim Janata of Bangladesh were outlawed for militant and anti-state activities in that country.
Meanwhile,  the local police have arrested a Sylhet based youth in connection with the murder of Ananta Bijoy. Moreover,  a local court of Bangladesh framed charges against eight accused criminals for their involvement in the killing of Rajib Haider (35), who was hacked to death at Mirpur locality of Dhaka on 15 February 2013. It needs to be mentioned that among those accused individuals, there is a group of university students with a cleric (Imam) from a Dhaka mosque.