Author Avijit Roy was murdered on Thursday night, February 26, by two assailants in Dhaka, just a week after they returned to his native Bangladesh from the United States, where they now were citizens. Although I’ve tried in vain to find more than his age (42), I failed to locate his date of birth although I know he was born in Dhaka. However, there is still the attack, and I’ll be examining that.
The articles in both the United States and Bangladesh are important because they offer the perspectives of both nations that he had called “home.”
Dhaka Tribune: Writer Avijit Roy Killed, Miscreants Attack
Roy, an avowed atheist, in an article published by the Center for Inquiry, noted, “I suddenly found myself a target of militant Islamists and terrorists.” In the same article, Mr. Roy wrote, “A well-known extremist by the name of Farabi Shafiur Rahman openly issued death threats to me through his numerous Facebook statuses. In one widely circulated status, Rahman wrote, “Avijit Roy lives in America and so, it is not possible to kill him right now. But he will be murdered when he comes back.”
pdf file: Avijit Roy Final Free Inquiry
And if it was indeed Farabi Shafiur Rahman, it would seem that vow was carried out.
Some of the news implied that Avijit Roy had been stabbed to death. While I sometimes shy away from more brutal words in already violent situations, at other times the facts outweigh the more pristine usage of the words “stabbed to death.” The fact is that he wasn’t stabbed to death at all; he was hacked to death with a pair of machetes.
The killers apparently stood in wait on the route they knew Roy and his wife would take on the way back to where they were staying in his home city of Dhaka, and it would seem that all they had to do was that: Lie in wait until Roy and his wife approached. And somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00 pm, on Thursday night, the wait was fruitful for the murderers who cut off the fingers on Roy’s wife’s left hand and attacked him so brutally, there was going to be no chance of saving his life.
A Western, below-the-horizon, 2nd quadrant dominance, and I highly doubt the assailants will ever be found. They’ll be cloistered by others in their “gang” who will protect them at all costs. That’s far too apparent to me.
Yet take a look at Mercury in the 4th house in opposition to Jupiter in the 11th (It’s in the 10th, but it’s within orb to the 11th, so we call it in the 11th house. And while we don’t have the same dynamics from last night (Thursday) in this chart, that doesn’t mean they aren’t present in another light:
Although the turn of events took place on Thursday night rather than on Friday night (tonight), the Moon was in perfect placement to have created a quindecile at 166°20 again with Saturn!
In addition, take note of the very tight 10-minute partile quincunx between Jupiter and Pluto in addition to Pluto’s conjunction to the IC and Uranus’ equally tight conjunction to the 7th house cusp. There’s no way I would say this was a spontaneous act without a great deal of planning. It was cold, calculating and focused on secrecy. One can’t help but note the 24-minute partile conjunction of Sun and Neptune at the time of the attack in square to Saturn in the 2nd house.
How these dynamics played out against Avijit Roy’s chart is anyone’s guess. Again, I wasn’t able to find his data, but I suspect this interaction between the attack and his natal chart would have shown in the interactive synastry.
A tragic blow to two nations and to the collective whose efforts for basic human rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” regardless of the nation felled a great man last night. Somehow I don’t think his wife will remain silent. I think, if anything, this will make her more determined than ever.
Farewell, Avijit Roy. Your words will continue to be read.
©2015 Michelle Young