“Blogger killers are now threatening the newsmen for standing behind the victims”, says Shamsul Basunia, in Dhaka.

“Obscure blackguards, generally accepted as ultra-fundamentalists, debilitated a bdnews24.com correspondent by beating him. They did so for posting remarks on Facebook in dissent against the killing of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das in Sylhet.

“Thakurgaon correspondent Ali Ahsan Habib said calls had been made to his cellphone from various numbers the following Wednesday evening,” continued Shamsul, “he was mishandled, he said. The first call was made at 8:39pm.’Why do you mind when we slaughter nonbelievers?’ one of them asked Habib. He got calls from more numbers subsequently. They were determined to beat him.”

Swedish PEN demanded a response from government via the Swedish Embassy in Dhaka following Tuesday’s murder of the author and blogger Ananta Bijoy Dash after they invited him to Sweden; the application for a visa was refused.

The blogger had been told: “You belong to a category of applicants where there is always a risk involved when granting a visa that you will not leave Schengen area after the visit. Furthermore, the purpose of your trip is not urgent enough to grant you visa.”

More than a month ago Swedish PEN invited the Bangladeshi Ananta Bijoy Dash to Stockholm to speak about the deteriorating situation in Bangladesh for journalists and writers, a hot topic after the brutal murders of blogger Washiqur Rahman and writer Avijit Roy earlier in March.

PEN’s invitation followed the standard procedure used when representatives of the international press and defenders of freedom of expression are invited to meetings or events within the framework of PEN’s extensive programme activities.

For Ananta Bijoy Dash, the theme of the meeting which was to take place on May 3 in Stockholm in conjunction with the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day, was inseparably linked with the reality he lived as a secular blogger in a Bangladesh where extremism is increasingly on the rise. According to Swedish PEN, this made him uniquely suited to talk about these issues. But the Swedish Embassy in Dhaka refused to issue the visa required for him to visit Sweden.

This news has been received with great sadness and it has raised many questions from Pen, especially looking at the final lines of the embassy refusal letter: “You belong to a category of applicants where there is always a risk involved when granting a visa that you will not leave Schengen area after the visit. Furthermore, the purpose of your trip is not urgent enough to grant you visa.”

Swedish PEN demands a detailed and credible explanation of why the Swedish Embassy in Dhaka chose not to grant Ananta Bijoy Dash the visa he needed to fulfill the Swedish PEN’s invitation to speak in Stockholm – a invitation that would have guaranteed his stay in Stockholm as Swedish PEN’s guest for two weeks upon his arrival and which could have ensured that Ananta Bijoy Dashe would still be here with us today.