Wife of blogger Tareq Rahim says she fears for the life of her
husband after he was seriously injured last week in the latest attack by
religious extremists on secular bloggers and writers in Bangladesh.
Monika Mistry, a Canadian woman, said her husband, Tareq, was hacked
multiple times in the head, hands and torso and was shot in the stomach.
His condition has improved but he remains in critical condition, with a
bullet still inside his body. Mistry’s afraid he could be attacked
again, reports Global News Canada.
Rahim, she said, was meeting with writer friends Saturday afternoon
in the office of Shuddhoswar publishing house, in Dhaka, when unknown
assailants stormed in and began hacking them with machetes and cleavers.
“They didn’t even talk. They just started stabbing them,” she said.
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Mistry said it’s hard for her to even look at photos of her husband’s
wounds, but she agreed to share the images with Global News Canada.
Shuddhoswar owner Ahmedur Rashid Tutul and writer Ranadipam Basu were also injured in the attack.
Mistry had spoken with her husband just four hours before a friend in
London, England called her in the middle of the night to let her know
about the attack.
She said she feels powerless to be on the other side of the world
while her husband is fighting for his life. Mistry, a Bangladeshi who
went to Canada in 2006 and now lives in Montreal with her daughter from a
previous marriage, said she can’t afford to go back to Bangladesh to be
with Rahim.
“I can’t be there. I can’t see him, I can’t touch him, I can’t hear
from him,” the 37-year-old woman said, struggling to keep her composure.
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Mistry said she wants her 32-year-old husband to be in Canada,
where interfaith marriage is more accepted; she’s from a Hindu family,
he’s from a Muslim one, reports Global News Canada.
This attack and another one just hours later are the most recent in a
series of violent assaults since February when Bangladeshi-American
writer and blogger Avijit Roy was murdered.
Roy was hacked to death while walking with wife outside a book fair
on the Dhaka University campus. His wife, Rafida Bonya Ahmed also
suffered wounds and reportedly lost a thumb in the attack.
In a separate attack on Saturday, just hours after Rahim was
seriously wounded, 43-year-old Faisal Arefin Dipan was killed in the
office of his Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house.
Both Jagriti Prokashoni and Shuddhoswar publishing houses had published Roy’s works.
More attacks to come?
Mistry fears Rahim’s life will continue to be at risk because he
survived the attack and the assailants are waiting to finish the job.
“These killers, they’re on the street. You don’t know, maybe they’re
walking around the hospitals because they couldn’t fulfill their
mission. They wanted these people dead, but they’re not dead,” she said.
There aren’t a lot of options for the government to step in to help
Rahim because he’s still in Bangladesh, according to Halifax Refugee
Clinic executive director Julie Chamagne.
She said what likely needs to happen is for a letter to be written to
the minister of citizenship, refugees and immigration
(Markham-Thornhill MP John McCallum) to expedite the processing of
Mistry’s application for her husband to be granted residency, or for him
to request a temporary resident permit while applying to live here
permanently.
The Centre for Inquiry (CFI) Canada, a non-profit education
organisation, is leading calls for the newly elected Trudeau government
to intervene in the case, reports Global News Canada.
“CFI Canada is making an appeal to the Canadian government, and
certainly Justin Trudeau, to ask for some compassionate support for
someone who would have likely been coming to Canada if they hadn’t been
attacked by terrorists before getting a chance to do that,” said
Executive Director Eric Adriaans.
Mistry just hopes anyone who has the power will do what they can to help ensure her husband’s to safety.
“This is the most difficult thing that one can go through,” she said.
