Unidentified assailants hacked to death Rajshahi University English professor AFM Rezaul Karim Siddiquee on Saturday morning.
The murder bore the hallmarks of previous killings by Islamist militants of secular and atheist activists.
The murder took place 17 months after RU sociology department professor AKM Shafiul Islam was hacked to death by unknown assailants near his house in Chauddapai area on the outskirts of Rajshahi city on November 15, 2014. In past 12 years four teachers of the university were brutally killed.
A witness said two men riding on a motorcycle attacked the professor, also a cultural activist, from behind around 7:38am at Shalbagan Battala crossing 200 yards off his house while he was heading to the campus.
The attackers chopped his neck and nape indiscriminately leaving him dead on the spot.
Rajshahi Metropolitan Police commissioner Md Shamsuddin said there are similarities of sign of injuries among the murders of bloggers, RU teacher Shafiul Islam and this one.
Rajshahi University Teachers Association boycotted classes and examinations today.
Ananda Kumar Saha, former general secretary of the association, said Rezaul Karim had no political involvement with any parties and he was just simple and modest.
Soon after the murder, the students of Rajshahi University burst out in protest. Students of Islamic history and cultural department blocked Dhaka-Rajshahi highway in front of the university entrance protesting murders of Rezaul Karim and one of their fellows whose body was found in a city hotel on Friday.
Several hundred students of English department paraded the campus protesting the murder.
A good sitar player, Rezaul Karim, recently set up a music school at Baghmara, where ultra-Islamist group Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh was formed. The professor was also the editor of a little magazine Komalgandhar and was an adviser to a cultural troupe.
He served English department for past 30 years.
Rezaul is survived by his wife, daughter Satabhi who completed master’s in English from RU, and son Sourav who was now studying at Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology.
The victim’s wife said he was a very good man having no enemy or trouble with anyone.
He had breakfast with the family and left for the university, the widow added.
