bdnews24.com :Several bloggers say they can hardly trust police for security after receiving death threats.They say they have lost faith in police for delivering on investigations of murdered fellow bloggers.Four secular bloggers have been murdered in the past six months and police has failed to crack any of these cases.After the murder of Niladri Chatterjee Niloy this month, bdnews24.com received a letter from ‘Ittehadul Mujahideen’ threatening to kill 19 people, which include bloggers, ministers, teachers, and Ganajagaran Mancha organisers.Police says they have never heard of a radical Islamist group called ‘Ittehadul Mujahideen’bdnews24.com has spoken to several of those threatened by the group.Ganajagaran activist Mahmudul Haque Munshi said a police detective wanted addresses of some bloggers after the threat.”I communicated with those bloggers and explained the matter to them; but none of them agreed to take help from police,” he said. No one can rely on the police now, he said. Munshi also said he could not trust the police.”Many policemen are actually religious fanatics, so how can they be trusted,” he said. His fellow Ganajagaran activist and blogger Arif Jebtik said he did not expect ‘anything’ from police, let alone security.”There is no apparent progress in the cases of murder of bloggers. I won’t say that I don’t have confidence in the police, but I surely don’t have any expectations,” he said.He, however, said he responded gently when police enquired about him.”I believe police can nab any criminal if they want to. But under the current circumstances, I don’t hope that police would arrest any criminal. So there is no question of relying on them,” Jebtik added. After Niloy’s murder, police chief AKM Shahidul Haque suggested the bloggers not write anything hurting religious sentiments.That led to much criticism. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal went further warning of legal action against any writing that hurt religious sentiments. Blogger ‘Swabak Pakhi’ said confidence in police was already ‘zero’, so where was the question of a drop in confidence. The blogger said the remarks of the home minister and the police chief explained the lack of their confidence in the law-enforcing agency.”The law-enforcing agencies are full of fundamentalists. So I can’t believe they will provide us security,” the blogger said. Blogger Nirjhar Mazumder blamed the lack of confidence in police on past events.”We have seen no progress in the case of blogger murders, we have been dismayed by statements made often on the issue by decision-makers and law-enforcers and we have seen shifts in official thinking.”Mazumder said police in 2013 summoned many bloggers to their office on pretext of providing security and then detained four bloggers.”See how Avijit Roy’s murder was first blamed on his wife Rafida Ahmed’s friends. Then hostile speeches were made,” he said. Mazumder said the lack of confidence grew from the failure of detective police to crack the murder cases. Blogger Arifur Rahman points to the provisions in the ICT Act that has been, according to him, used to ‘silence the secular voices’. “Just see how they have blamed the murders on bloggers crossing the red line. They are just blaming us. What is red line, are they clear about it ! We can however provide enough evidence how the law-enforcers have misused the law against us,” said Rahman.
