Police have detained 15 people including the principal of a local college over their suspected connection to the murder of Rajshahi University (RU) teacher AKM Shafiul Islam.
But they have have git no clue to the motive behind the murder that took place in broad daylight on Saturday.
But a group named ‘Ansar al Islam Bangladesh-2’ claimed responsibility for killing the RU sociology teacher in a Facebook page opened five hours after the attack.
Islam’s son Soumin Sahrid Javin has also blamed Islamist militants for having a hand in his father’s murder.
The slain teacher’s colleagues stayed off from classes and examinations on Sunday and announced to extend the boycott until Tuesday.
The teachers have told the government that they would call tougher agitation programmes if the murderers are not found in 15 days.
The university administration filed a case on Sunday night at Motihar Police Station. The station’s OC Alamgir Hossain, however, said a number of unknown persons were accused in it.
Teachers and students of Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University demonstrated in their campuses earlier in the day demanding quick arrest of the killers.
Forty-eight-year old Shafiul Islam was attacked near the campus on Saturday afternoon and died an hour later at the Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital.
He was buried at the family graveyard at Hiadpur in Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj Upazila at Sunday noon.
Two of the detainees were taken into custody by police late on Saturday night after the prime minister ordered immediate arrest of the killers.
Motihar police said 13 others were detained during daylong raids on Sunday.
However, apart from Islamia Degree College Principal Humayun Ahmed’s identity, the law enforcers did not reveal those of the other detainees.
Motihar police OC Hossain told bdnews24.com detectives of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police picked up Humayun from Binodpur, adjacent to the university campus, on suspicion of involvement in the murder.
Binodpur is a stronghold of Jamaat-e-Islami. Another Islamist organisation Ahle Hadith is also active in that area. Chief of this organisation Asadullah Al Galib, a former RU teacher, is currently in jail pending trial.
Metropolitan detective police’s OC Abdul Majid said during the raids, apart from Humayun 12 others suspects were picked up from both Binodpur and Bihas Palli, the place of occurrence.
He told bdnews24.com that all the detainees were being questioned at the city’s Detective Branch headquarters.
Source: bdnews24