A professor was hacked to death in Bangladesh on Saturday in an attack the police said was similar to the recent killings of secular bloggers and activists. A.F.M. Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, 58, was an English professor at Rajshahi University.
Md. Shamsuddin, Metropolitan Police Commissioner of northern Rajshahi, where the professor was murdered, said Siddiquee was attacked “in the same way the bloggers and online activists were slain.” The region has been plagued by violent incidents in the past several months.
IS takes responsibility for Bangladesh professor’s murder
The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the murder of Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, an English professor in Bangladesh’s Rajshahi University.
The group said it killed him for “calling to atheism” in Bangladesh, according to U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist outfits. The claim was made by IS-linked Amaq Agency, according to SITE.
But fellow university teachers said Mr. Siddiquee, while active in cultural events, never spoke or wrote anything about religion or Islam. He was attacked near his home in Rajshahi early on Saturday. Witnesses and police said the assailants on a motorcycle attacked Mr. Siddiquee and slashed his neck in the city’s Boalia area, when he was waiting for a bus to go to the university campus. According to the victim’s family, he had not received any threat.
Five secular bloggers and a publisher have been killed in a similar fashion since February last year. The IS has claimed responsibility for the killings of two foreigners, attacks on mosques and Christian priests in Bangladesh in recent months. The government says there is no organisational network of IS in Bangladesh. They, however, admitted that some radical groups are active in the country.
The gruesome killing triggered protest by teachers and students of the Rajshahi University who blocked a major road and demanded immediate arrest of the killers. Three teachers at the university have been killed in recent years.
(With inputs from Reuters)
