Bangladeshi activists, writers and publishers participate in a torch rally held to protest against the killing of Faisal Arefin Deepan, a publisher of secular books, and the attacks on other publishers and bloggers in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Nov 2. (AP)

The widow of a Bangladeshi-American atheist blogger killed earlier this year decried the Bangladesh government’s failure to prosecute the perpetrators of deadly attacks on writers Monday and urged countries to provide safe houses for dozens more on death lists. Rafida Ahmed, who was hacked four times in the head and had her thumb sliced off in the Feb 26 attack in Dhaka that killed her husband Avijit Roy, was the surprise speaker at a panel Monday to mark the second International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.

They lived in Atlanta and were visiting Bangladesh where he spoke at a book fair just before the attack. Ahmed, who helped her husband with his writings, said there is a death list of 84 bloggers given to the government by “Islamic terrorists,” adding that they are also killing people outside the list and she has also been threatened. Since the beginning of the year, she said, five writers, bloggers and publishers have been killed and many more wounded for promoting “free thoughts, secularism and freedom of speech.” (AP)