Arrests follow Bangladesh professor murder

DHAKA, Nov. 17 (NsNewsWire) — Bangladeshi police have arrested at least 20 people for questioning over the murder of a prominent university professor who was hacked to death, several years after he led a push to ban students wearing full-face veils.

The victim, Shafiul Islam, was killed on Saturday near Rajshahi University in the west of the Muslim-majority country where he was a professor of sociology, a senior officer said on Sunday.

The professor followed the folk sect Baul, popular in parts of western Bangladesh, whose members call themselves followers of humanism rather than a particular religion, reports Aljazeera.

The murder has triggered protests in the capital Dhaka and in Rajshahi where mainly students have marched through university campuses and boycotted classes since news of the killing broke on Saturday.

“We are working on several possible motives behind the killing,” Rajshahi police commissioner Mahbubur Rahman told the AFP news agency, adding that the “leading” one was that the murder was carried out by an armed group.

He said about 20 people have been arrested but declined to say which religious or political groups they were connected to.

Local newspaper Dhaka Tribune reported that the principal of Islamia College was among those arrested.

A previously unknown group calling itself the Ansar al-Islam Bangladesh-2 claimed responsibility for the killing, after opening a Facebook page late on Saturday.

“Our Mujahideens have today murdered an apostate who had prohibited female students from wearing veils in his department and the classrooms,” a posting said.”Beware all the anti-Islamic apostates and atheists!”