Student held in Bangladesh Professor murder

The professor was brutally hacked to death by machete-wielding militants. Hafizur Rahman was detained over the murder of 58-year-old Rajshahi University Professor AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee in Rajshahi city in north western Bangladesh on Saturday, the latest in a series of similar attacks on intellectuals and bloggers by the dreaded group in the country. 

Rahman, an alleged activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir, was detained from a student mess at Chhoto Bongram, Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) Commissioner Md Shamsuddin said. “Hafizur is a student of the university’s Public Administration department,” Shamsuddin was quoted as saying by the Daily Star. 

Earlier on Sunday, the murder case was handed over to the Detective Branch of Police, the commissioner added. The Professor of English literature was brutally murdered in the city’s Shalbagan area on Saturday, in an attack that police say bears the hallmark of the previous blogger killings. Two years ago, another Rajshahi University teacher AKM Shafiul Islam was similarly murdered. 

Though his murder was initially claimed by radical group “Ansaral Islam”, police later ruled out that possibility, saying he was murdered due to personal rivalry. A few years ago, two professors of the state-run varsity had been killed. 

There have been systematic assaults in Bangladesh in recent months specially targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners. Last year, four prominent secular bloggers were killed with machetes, one inside his own home.