Students of Jagannath University (JnU) threatened an all out student strike on Sunday if the killers of blogger and online activist Nazimuddin Samad are not arrested by Saturday. The announcement came yesterday after JnU students held demonstrations for four hours, blocking the road in front of the university. JnU Students’ Union general secretary SK Shuvo said the students would hold demonstrations at Shahbag intersection today at 3pm. Nazimuddin Samad, 27, a law student of Jagannath University, was hacked to death by machete-wielding miscreants around 11pm at Sutrapur’s Ekrampur Mor in the capital while he was returning from a class at his university. People heard the attackers shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ (‘God is greatest’) as they fled, police said. Nazim posted pro-atheism comments on Facebook and he was also an organiser of Ganajagaran Mancha at his hometown Sylhet, according to his Facebook page.
Imran H Sarker, convener, Blogger and Online Activist Network, said Nazim was an outspoken critic of injustice and militancy. He was also a staunch supporter of secularism, Sarker said.
Nizam, who was doing LLM at JU, graduated from Leading University in Sylhet.
Senior assistant commissioner (Wari Zone) Nurul Amin said the attack was pre-planned. Nazim was first hacked and then shot, he said.
The acting OC of Sutrapur Police Station said the police, along with the Detective Branch (DB), are investigating the killing.
Meanwhile, representatives of the United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) in Bangladesh condemned the killing of Nazim. UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, Robert Watkins, said in a statement that the attack undermined the freedom of expression and opinion in the country. He urged the authorities to arrest the culprits immediately.
Strongly condemning the killing, the EU’s ambassador to Bangladesh, Pierre Mayaudon, said freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and emphasised the need for tolerance and respect for differing views.  
They also called for a thorough probe into the killings of all online activists. No group, however, has claimed responsibility for the killing as yet.
Nazim was the seventh secular activist to be killed. Police suspected that Nazim had been targeted as he was an outspoken atheist.
Last year, assailants had hacked to death at least four atheist bloggers and a secular publisher in a series of targeted killing of secular activists. Police arrested some members of a banned group, the Ansarullah Bangla Team, over the murders. However, no one has been prosecuted yet. Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Amnesty International (AI) issued separate statements over the killing.  The CPJ urged the Bangladesh government to determine the motive for the killing, and take immediate steps to bring his attackers to justice. AI has said the Bangladesh authorities must ensure that those activists and writers now under threat are effectively protected in accordance with their wishes.
The vicious killing of another secular activist in Bangladesh is a grave reminder that the authorities are failing to protect people exercising their right to freedom of expression, said the global rights watchdog.