Rezaul Karim Siddique
On April 23, 2016, Siddique was murdered by Islamic militants. While his death by machete was similar to other secular bloggers, Siddique was not publicly critical of Islam and… More
Shahzahan Bachchu
On June 11, 2018, extremists murdered secular writer Bachchu in a drive-by shooting. Three of the four suspects were later killed in police shootouts, but the legal case is… More
Faisal Arefin Deepan
Deepan, a publisher of secular books, was stabbed to death by extremists in 2015. In late 2019, eight militants were indicted in a murder case filed on Deepan’s behalf,… More
Muhammad Zafar Iqbal
In 2018 Dr. Iqbal was stabbed by an anti-secular extremist after receiving multiple death threats. Iqbal recovered and one of his attackers received life in prison while another received… More
Matiur Rahman
Rahman faces continued harassment for his journalistic work and ownership of Prothom Alo. He has faced at least 55 defamation charges since 2016, notably one related to his caricature… More
Shafik Rehman
Rehman was arrested without warrant in April 2016 in connection with a plot to kidnap and murder the prime minister’s son. An active member of the political opposition, he… More
Sushmita Banerjee
On September 5, 2013, Indian-Afghan memoirist Sushmita Banerjee was kidnapped and murdered, purportedly by a splinter Taliban group who claimed responsibility. No groups or individuals, however, have been held… More
Mehedi Hassan
After writing a March 2018 blog post exposing negligence in the construction of power lines that led to a woman dying of electrocution, Hassan was the target of physical… More
Shahidul Alam
An internationally-renowned photojournalist, Alam was arrested on August 5, 2018 for commentary criticizing Bangladesh’s response to road safety protests. Although his trial is ongoing, there have been no recent… More
Shamsuzzoha Manik
On February 15, 2016, Manik was arrested after an extremist religious group threatened to hold protests over a book he published that was deemed offensive to Islam. Since October… More
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