Niladri Chattopadhyay, Bangladesh

Niladri Chattopadhyay, a secularist blogger identified in some reports as Niloy Chakrabarti, who wrote under the pen name Niloy Neel and contributed to the blog “Mukto-Mona” (Free-Mind), which criticised religious intolerance and extremism, was killed in his own home in Khilgoan by machete-wielding men on Aug. 7, 2015. The men reportedly posed as potential tenants and attacked Chattopadhyay while holding his wife and sister-in-law at gunpoint. He was the fourth blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh in 2015 whose name had appeared on a hit list of 84 “atheist bloggers” drawn up by Islamic extremist groups in 2013. Following Chattopadhyay’s death, Ansar-Al-Islam, the Bangladeshi chapter of al-Qaeda, reportedly claimed responsibility.

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