--- description: An atheist blogger, Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen Avijit Roy, was hacked to death Thursday in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. title: American Atheist Writer Killed in Bangladesh image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf5a9f9c66fb6cec/6987815fcd684824ab099eaf/avijit-roy-killed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Bangladesh](/tag/bangladesh/) ## Bangladesh Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # An American Atheist Writer Has Been Hacked to Death in Bangladesh by [Helen Regan](/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 27, 2015 6:37 AM CUT  Police forensics investigate the scene where U.S. blogger of Bangladeshi origin was hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on February 27, 2015. Police forensics investigate the scene where U.S. blogger of Bangladeshi origin was hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on February 27, 2015.Munir Uz Zaman—AFP/Getty Images by [Helen Regan](/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 27, 2015 6:37 AM CUT An American atheist blogger was hacked to [death ](http://news.yahoo.com/us-blogger-bangladeshi-origin-hacked-death-195611756.html "undefined")on Thursday in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. Two unidentified assailants attacked Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonna with machetes as the couple returned from a book fair, reports Agence France-Presse. “He died as he was brought to the hospital. His wife was also seriously wounded. She has lost a finger,” said local police chief Sirajul Islam. Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, had received multiple threats from Islamic fundamentalists in the past for his writings. He founded Mukto-Mona, a secular blog that featured liberal writings from around the Muslim-majority nation. He had published several well-known books including _Biswasher Virus_ (Virus of Faith). There has been a string of attacks on secular writers and academics in the South Asian country. In 2013, atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death by fundamentalists, sparking nationwide protests. Hard-line Islamists in the country have long called for the slaying of writers critical of Islam. Police have not yet identified the assailants but have launched an investigation and recovered the machetes used in the attack. \[[AFP](http://news.yahoo.com/us-blogger-bangladeshi-origin-hacked-death-195611756.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3725527/atheist-writer-killed-bangladesh-avijit-roy-mukto-mona/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3725527/atheist-writer-killed-bangladesh-avijit-roy-mukto-mona/"},"headline":"An American Atheist Writer Has Been Hacked to Death in Bangladesh","datePublished":"2015-02-27T06:37:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:46:26.573Z","description":"Avijit Roy had received several threats from Islamic fundamentalists over his secular writing","url":"https://time.com/3725527/atheist-writer-killed-bangladesh-avijit-roy-mukto-mona/","keywords":["Bangladesh","dhaka","blogger","Writer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf5a9f9c66fb6cec/6987815fcd684824ab099eaf/avijit-roy-killed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf5a9f9c66fb6cec/6987815fcd684824ab099eaf/avijit-roy-killed.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Police forensics investigate the scene where U.S. blogger of Bangladeshi origin was hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on February 27, 2015.","caption":"Police forensics investigate the scene where U.S. blogger of Bangladeshi origin was hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka on February 27, 2015.","creditText":"Munir Uz Zaman—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/bangladesh/","name":"Bangladesh"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3725527/atheist-writer-killed-bangladesh-avijit-roy-mukto-mona/","name":"An American Atheist Writer Has Been Hacked to Death in Bangladesh"}}]}] ```