Secular Writer

A prominent Bangladeshi writer and publisher was dragged out of a shop and shot dead by unidentified attackers in central Bangladesh, ending a lull in the killings of secular bloggers and activists in the Muslim-majority country.

The situation is "very complex" and there is a threat "on the ground" in Bangladesh, the US has said after a series of bloody attacks on secular writers and minorities in the Muslim-majority country were claimed by ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

Democracy and secularism, constitution and youth power, these are the advantages India enjoys and they should not be frittered away, noted poet and writer Javed Akhtar has said in a farewell speech to Parliament that drew huge applause cutting across political boundaries.

Secularism in India is under threat like never before said noted writer Nayantara Sahgal who had recently returned her 'Sahitya Akademi' award in protest against mob lynching of man in Dadri over rumours that he had eaten cow meat.

Protesters rallied in the Bangladesh capital today over the latest attacks against secular writers and publishers, accusing the government of failing to halt rising deadly violence blamed on hardline Islamists.

A Bangladesh publisher who worked with atheist writers was hacked to death in the capital Dhaka today, just hours after two secular bloggers and another publisher were attacked in a separate incident.

A secular blogger and the publisher of an atheist writer killed earlier this year by suspected Islamists were attacked today in the Bangladeshi capital, police said.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Tuesday came down heavily on writers protesting against 'rising intolerance' by saying those suffering from the "disease of secularism" are returning their medals. The RSS, which is the ideological mentor of the BJP, said these writers had no problems in accepting the honours from those "guilty of anti-Sikh riots....

What a contrast to Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru before and after Independence and Partition. One seems to hear today what Gandhiji cited at his prayer meeting in Birla House on 22 December 1947: "I always like to be with a minority, for a minority as a rule does not commit mistakes, and even if it does, it can be rectified. But a majority is drunk with...

Secular activists expressed outrage today after Bangladesh's national police chief warned bloggers they faced jail for posting material deemed offensive following last week's machete murder of a secular writer.

A prominent Bangladeshi writer and publisher was dragged out of a shop and shot dead by unidentified attackers in central Bangladesh, ending a lull in the killings of secular bloggers and activists in the Muslim-majority country.

The situation is "very complex" and there is a threat "on the ground" in Bangladesh, the US has said after a series of bloody attacks on secular writers and minorities in the Muslim-majority country were claimed by ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

Democracy and secularism, constitution and youth power, these are the advantages India enjoys and they should not be frittered away, noted poet and writer Javed Akhtar has said in a farewell speech to Parliament that drew huge applause cutting across political boundaries.

Secularism in India is under threat like never before said noted writer Nayantara Sahgal who had recently returned her 'Sahitya Akademi' award in protest against mob lynching of man in Dadri over rumours that he had eaten cow meat.

Protesters rallied in the Bangladesh capital today over the latest attacks against secular writers and publishers, accusing the government of failing to halt rising deadly violence blamed on hardline Islamists.

A Bangladesh publisher who worked with atheist writers was hacked to death in the capital Dhaka today, just hours after two secular bloggers and another publisher were attacked in a separate incident.

A secular blogger and the publisher of an atheist writer killed earlier this year by suspected Islamists were attacked today in the Bangladeshi capital, police said.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Tuesday came down heavily on writers protesting against 'rising intolerance' by saying those suffering from the "disease of secularism" are returning their medals. The RSS, which is the ideological mentor of the BJP, said these writers had no problems in accepting the honours from those "guilty of anti-Sikh riots....

What a contrast to Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru before and after Independence and Partition. One seems to hear today what Gandhiji cited at his prayer meeting in Birla House on 22 December 1947: "I always like to be with a minority, for a minority as a rule does not commit mistakes, and even if it does, it can be rectified. But a majority is drunk with...

Secular activists expressed outrage today after Bangladesh's national police chief warned bloggers they faced jail for posting material deemed offensive following last week's machete murder of a secular writer.