Rushdie, Ghosh appeal to Bangla govt over bloggers' killing

Controversial author Salman Rushdie has joined fellow Booker Prize winners and celebrated writers like Amitav Ghosh and Margaret Atwood to appeal to Bangladesh government to do "all in its power" to punish the killers of three secular bloggers who were hacked to death recently.
More than 150 writers from around the world, including Mumbai-born Rushdie - whose work has angered Muslims around the world, have expressed their "grave concern" due to this "escalating pattern of violence against writers and journalists who are peacefully expressing their views".
Kolkata-born writers Ghosh and Neel Mukherjee besides novelist Rohinton Mistry are among the writers, who have called on the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh in an appeal through 'The Guardian' "to ensure that the tragic events of the last three months are not repeated, and to bring the perpetrators to justice".

They have added their names to an open letter that comes days after machete-wielding masked men hacked to death 33-year-old blogger Ananta Bijoy Das in Bangladesh in the third such attack by Islamists since February in the Muslim- majority nation.
Terror group Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent claimed responsibility for the brutal murder on a crowded street in Sylhet when Das was on his way to work.
Bangladesh-born US national Avijit Roy, 45, was the first victim of a deadly attack on "atheist bloggers" by the suspected Islamists this year when machete-wielding assailants attacked Roy and his wife in February.

A month after Roy's killing, another blogger Washiqur Rahman was murdered in similar fashion in Dhaka.

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental right under Bangladesh's constitution as well as one of the rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," the open letter says.
"We call on the Bangladeshi authorities to swiftly and impartially investigate Ananta Bijoy Das's death as well as the murders of Avijit Roy and Washiqur Rahman Babu, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice in accordance with international fair trial standards," it demands.
The writers also want that the Bangladeshi 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".