Call them by any name – Daesh
or IS, Salafis or Wahabis, Taliban or Jamaati fundamentalists -- their killing spree goes on in the name of
Islam, the religion of peace. Their soft target: free
thinkers or secular scholars, students and professors anywhere, especially in
soft countries like Bangladesh where Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, a professor of
English at Rajshahi university, was hacked to death last Saturday. This follows
the killing of a law student only a fortnight earlier, taking two lives in
April alone, besides a temple priest who was done to death earlier this year.
Hafizur Rahman, a student activist belonging to Islami
Chatra Shibir wing of Jamaat-e-Islam has
been detained by police over the incident.
Siddiquee had his throat slit before being hacked to death.
The IS, which took the responsibility for the killing, claimed he was an atheist,
a claim denied by his senior at the university. Siddiquee had opened a school
in his village introducing children to the music and poetry of Tagore and Kazi
Nazrul Islam. Siddiquee is the fourth murder
victim from Rajshahi university in recent years.
Last year Bangladesh saw seven others, including blog
writers, publishers and social workers being killed in broad daylight by hitmen riding motorbikes .
