Bangladesh stabbing: Attacker saw secular writer as 'enemy of Islam', say police

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DHAKA: A 21-year-old man was arrested today in Bangladesh for allegedly stabbing a secular writer multiple times during a university seminar, deeming him an "enemy of Islam", police said.

Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, 64, a renowned science fiction writer and professor at the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in the northern city of Sylhet, was stabbed in his head and neck yesterday, local media reported.

Iqbal, an outspoken opponent of militancy and communalism, was rushed to a local hospital and later airlifted to a military hospital in Dhaka, bdnews24 reported.

Police said they have detained the attacker, identified as Faizur Rahman alias Faizul, a resident of an area adjacent to the Shahjalal University.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has "strongly" condemned the attack and ordered officials to bring the attacker to justice.

The attack took place during a festival organised by the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department where Iqbal was the chief guest. Rahman struck Iqbal from behind and stabbed him in the head, the report said.

The students and the policemen guarding the professor held Rahman immediately after he launched the assault on Iqbal. The students also beat Faizur up before handing him over to police, according to the report.

Iqbal had recently criticised ragging on campus and said that five students punished for ragging had gotten off easy and should have been handed over to police, it said.

Iqbal has been provided police protection since 2015 when militants threatened to kill him.

There were six to seven policemen guarding him when the attack took place, the report said.

Lt Colonel Ali Haider Azad Ahmed from the Rapid Action Battalion of the police said Rahman told them he was a student of Alia Madrasa in Sylhet. But the law enforcers could not confirm the information, according to the report.

Rahman also told the law enforcers that he carried out the attack on the professor "to kill him because he was an enemy of Islam", the official was quoted as saying by bdnews24.

He was further being quizzed for links to any radical group.

Rahman's maternal uncle Fazlur Rahman was also arrested from Sheikhparha area late last night, a police official said.

In the last couple of years, Bangladesh has seen a spate of gruesome attacks on secular activists, religious minorities, bloggers and foreigners, many of whom have been hacked to death with machetes.

A 40-year-old secular Bangladeshi blogger was hacked to death at his flat in Dhaka in 2015 by five machete-wielding unidentified assailants.

The attack drew international condemnation and led to widespread protests.