The United Nations has renewed its call for the security authorities in Bangladesh to ‘adequately protect’ online activists who might be at risk.

In a statement on Thursday, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Robert D Watkins said the UN in Bangladesh is appalled by the killing of Nazim Uddin Samad and condemned the brutal crime.

The UN also urged the security authorities to bring about a speedy closure to this most recent atrocity as well as to the other investigations underway.

Watkins laid emphasis on protecting the online activists adequately to ensure continued freedom of expression and opinion in the country as they are the foundations of a democratic society.

Samad, a master’s degree student of Jagannath University who had expressed secular views online, has been killed in the capital on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old was reported to have been an organiser of the Ganajagran Manch, a secular campaigning group.

The UN has been raising its concerns about these incidents since the first killing three years ago and continues to call for thorough investigations to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice, Watkins said.

‘In spite of the recent pause in the assassination of online activists, this attack demonstrates that this new killing is clearly part of a growing trend which undermines the freedom of expression and opinion in Bangladesh,’ he said.

The UN, Watkins said, recognises that the Courts have delivered a verdict in the Rajib Haider murder case in January this year, two years after the killing.