Bangladesh Assailants Machete US Blogger Avijit Roy to Death

Assailants in Bangladesh brutally murdered a prominent American blogger who championed liberal secular writing, the Guardian reported. Avijit Roy was hacked to death with machetes; he had allegedly received threats from Islamists.

Roy's death was confirmed by Sirajul Islam, the local police chief in Dhaka, the South Asian nation's capital. The blogger's spouse, Rafida Ahmed, was also a victim in the attack, Islam added.

"He died as he was brought to the hospital," the police chief said. "His wife was also seriously wounded. She has lost a finger."

The two were apparently returning from a book fair when two assailants stopped their bicycle rickshaw and dragged them on to the pavement where the attackers then stuck them with with machetes..

An unidentified female bystander told CNN one of the assailants pulled out "a big knife" and struck the blogger from behind in the head and shoulders.

"I shouted for help from the people, but nobody came to save him," she said. "No one came."

Sohel Ahmed, a physician who apparently treated Roy at a local hospital, said the writer "suffered fatal wounds in the head and died from bleeding."

An Islamist activist had warned last year that Roy "will be murdered when he comes back" to the country, the International Humanist and Ethical Union said. The founder of the website "Mukto-Mona" was an American citizen of Bangladesh origin.

Based in the Atlanta area, Roy was a "prominent defender of the free thought movement (and) advocate of atheism, science and metaphysical naturalism," according to his website. His writings were featured in a variety of numerous magazines and journals and he penned seven books.

Roy's killing has caused public outcry and demonstrations in Bangladesh, a majority Muslim nation formerly known as East Pakistan.

"Dhaka University is a cradle of exercising free thoughts and democracy. For these reasons, the communal extremists chose the university campus to launch attacks on persons of progressive conscience," the Dhaka University Teachers Association said.