Dhaka: A college professor was hacked to dying on Saturday in northwestern Bangladesh, police stated, with Islamic State claiming duty for the newest in a collection of assaults on liberal activists.
Two assailants on a motorbike attacked Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, fifty eight, an English professor at Rajshahi College, slitting his throat and hacking him to demise, Rajshahi metropolis police chief Mohammad Shamsuddin advised reporters, quoting witnesses.
He was discovered mendacity in a pool of blood close to his residence, the place he was apparently ready for a bus to the college campus about 200 kilometres northwest of Dhaka when he was attacked.
Islamic State claimed duty for the killing of the professor for “calling to atheism”, the US-based mostly SITE monitoring service stated, quoting the militant group’s Amaq Company.
Police stated the homicide was just like different current assaults on secular bloggers by Islamist militants. However fellow college academics stated Siddiquee, whereas lively in cultural occasions, by no means spoke or wrote something about faith or Islam.
“Professor Rezaul was killed similarly because the killings of bloggers,” Shamsuddin stated, including he was a peaceable individual and had no enemies.
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The Muslim-majority nation of one hundred sixty million has seen a surge in violent assaults over the previous few months during which members of minority Muslim sects and different spiritual teams have additionally been focused.
5 secular bloggers and a writer have been hacked to demise in Bangladesh since February final yr.
A gaggle affiliated with al Qaeda claimed duty for the killing of a liberal Bangladeshi blogger earlier this month, SITE has stated.
Bangladesh authorities stated the homegrown militant group Ansarullah Bangla Workforce is behind the assaults on on-line critics of spiritual extremism.
The ugly killing on Saturday triggered a protest by academics and college students of the Rajshahi College, blocking a serious street and demanding speedy arrest of the killers. Three academics on the college have been killed in recent times.
Islamic State has additionally claimed duty for the killings of two foreigners, and assaults on mosques and Christian clergymen in Bangladesh since September, however police stated native militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was behind these assaults.
The federal government has denied that the Islamic State or al Qaeda teams have a presence in Bangladesh. No less than 5 militants have been killed in shootouts since November as safety forces have stepped up a crackdown on Islamist militants trying to set up a sharia-based mostly Muslim state.
Reuters