Activists to protest Bangladeshi writer's murder Monday

MUMBAI: A group of activists will gather to protest last week's murder of Bangladeshi writer Avijit Roy at the hands of extremists. They will converge at Dadar station Monday evening.
Organiser Jatin Desai wrote to say, "Once again religious extremists have struck. They have murdered Roy, a Bangladeshi secular progressive writer who stood against right-wing religious and communal forces.Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed were attacked by two machete-wielding fanatics. A group called Ansar al Bangla has claimed responsibility for the murder. This is also a part of the ongoing struggle in Bangladesh ever since the Shahbagh movement of 2011, where thousands of youths took to the streets to assert the secular and progressive values of Bangla society."
"The killing of another secular and progressive figure coming in the wake of the murders of Narendra Dabholkar and Comrade Govind Pansare, as well as the rising tide of religio-extremists forces across South Asia, calls for the further unity of the secular and progressive forces across South Asia and the world."
The statement was endorsed by Feroze Mithiborwala, Kishore Jagtap, Noorjehan Safia Niyaz, Sukla Sen, Salim Alware, Jyoti Badekar, Mayur Thakre, Arif Kapadia, Farouk Mapkar, Afaque Azad, Winnie Thomas and Tiito Eapen.