Bangladeshi Muslim blogger suspected of killing American atheist blogger with cleaver: police

Farabi Shafiur Rahman, center, was arrested as a suspect in the murder of American blogger Avijit Roy.

Ajay Roy, right, stands beside the coffin of his son Avijit Roy on Sunday.

BY MEG WAGNER-Monday, March 2, 2015

Bangladesh police arrested a Muslim blogger suspected of killing a U.S. blogger who was an outspoken atheist and a critic of religious extremism.

The Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh’s anti-terrorism unit, arrested Farabi Shafiur Rahman on Monday, four days after Avijit Roy was hacked to death with a meat cleaver. The attack left Roy’s wife with head injuries, NBC News reported.

Rahman — who was previously arrested for his involvement with Hizbut Tahrir, an Islamist extremist group — posted threats against Roy on Facebook last year, police said.

Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, was the founder of Mukto-mona, a blog that condemns religious extremism.

“It’s a holy duty of Bangalee Muslims to kill Avijit,” Rahman wrote, according to police.

Rahman maintains his own Muslim blog in which he has denounced atheism, police said. He confessed to posting the threats, but police refused to say if they believed he was one of Roy’s assailants.

A group of cleaver-wielding attackers assaulted Roy and his wife, blogger Rafida Ahmed, on Thursday as the pair returned from a book fair in Dhaka. Ahmed survived the brutal battery but lost a finger. She remains in the hospital with head injuries, officials said.

Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, was the founder of Mukto-mona, which means Free Mind, a blog that advocates for scientific reasoning and against religious fanaticism.

With News Wire Services

mwagner@nydailynews.com