A publisher of secular books, Faisal was hacked to death at his office immediately following attacks on another secular publisher and two secular writers. A local al-Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Dr. Razia Rahman (wife), Ridat Farhan (son), Ridma Adnin (daughter), Dr. Abul Kashem Fazlul Haq (father), Farida Pradhan (mother), Dr. Shuchita Sharmin (sister)
In October 2015, Faisal Arefin Dipan, a publisher of books in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, was stabbed to death in his office. Shortly before his murder, Faisal had alerted police that he had been receiving online death threats. His body was left to be identified by his father, and a regional al-Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility for the attack.
"I saw him lying upside down and in a massive pool of blood. They slaughtered his neck. He is dead." - Abul Kashem Fazlul Haq, Faisal's father
The motivation the al-Qaeda affiliate gave for the attack was the content of a particular book Faisal’s company had published. Written by Avijit Roy, a secular blogger who had suffered a similarly grisly fate earlier that year, it was entitled The Virus of Faith. As its name suggests, the content was unfriendly to religion, so unfriendly as to spur the death threats and the vigilante blasphemy execution that Faisal faced.
Bangladeshi secular publisher hacked to death - BBC
Faisal Arefin Dipan - Committee to Protect Journalists
Blasphemy law in Bangladesh allows the state to arrest, trial and imprison any person who has intention of hurting "religious sentiments." While the state does not have any law against apostasy, vigilantism or non-state groups prosecute apostates on their own. Vigilante violence has been an especially acute issue, most notably in the mid-2010s when a string of secularist and atheist bloggers suffered murder and attempted murder at the hands of Islamist extremists.