Saiduzzaman, a faculty of Bangla department at Islami University in Kushtia, receives treatment at a local hospital after being injured by miscreants who hacked his friend, Sanaullah, to death on Friday morning.
Three assailants riding on a motorbike hacked to death a homeopath and injured Kushtia University teacher in Kushtia on Friday morning when the victims were riding on another motorbike.
The 55-year-old-homeopath, Mir Sanaur Rahman Sana, died on the spot while his neighbour Saifuzzaman, also Islamic University Bangla department assistant professor, sustained critical injured in the head and was moved to Dhaka as his condition was deteriorating.
Both the victims were bauls, a group of mystic minstrels of Sufi Muslims, said local peoples and police investigators.
The incident bore the hallmark of previous attacks on secular bloggers, activists, intellectuals, spiritual leaders and religious minorities as the police investigators suspected that it might have connection to militancy among others issues.
On May 13, a septuagenarian Buddhist monk was hacked to death at his place of worship at a remote village of bordering Naikhyangchari upazila in Bandarban.
The police investigators were not clear about motive of the killing on the homeopath within a week of the killing of the monk.
Until Friday evening, no one claimed responsibility for the Friday’s killing.
Local people and police officials said that three assailants hacked the two victims in the heads and left the spot leaving a machete in Battail-Poradah road in the district headquarters at about 9:30am.
Saifuzzaman was riding on a motorbike to drop homeopath Sanaur, who was riding pillion, at Shishirpara Math where the slain travel every Friday morning to provide free treatment to the poor.
As a part of charity, both the victims tried to provide free medication to the poor on every Friday.
With grievous injuries, Saifuzzaman in Kushtia hospital told his friends and students that three assailants riding on a motorbike hacked Sanaur from behind.
After Sanaur fell down from the motorbike, the attackers chased him, the teacher said.
His student Mostafa Jubair Alam said that when the teacher fell down on the road with the motorbike, the attackers, aged between
25-26 years, got down from the motorbike and hacked him.
‘I could not understand why my teacher was targeted…He is so polite, apolitical and free-thinker,’ said his student, who spoke to the injured teacher.
Kushtia police station officer-in-charge Shahbuddin Chowdhury said that it might be a militant attack but the slain victim had dispute over a land where he had built his bungalow on seven acres of land at Shishipara Math.
The police investigators said that they failed to arrest anyone but seized a machete and two parts fingers of the teacher cut by the assailants.
A schoolboy was killed and another sustained injuries after a while where bomb blasted some two kilometre off the place where teacher and homeopath came under attack.
‘We are verifying if the blast had any connection with the attack,’ said Shahbuddin.
Saifuzzaman was a neighbour of the slain homeopath Sanaur, a resident of Purba Mazampur area in the district headquarters.
The body was handed over to the victim family after post-mortem examination while duty doctor Tapos Kumar Sarker referred the teacher to Dhaka for better treatment.
The teacher was flown to Dhaka on an air-ambulance and Islamic University vice-chancellor Abdul Hakim Sarker assured that best medical treatment would be arranged for him.
The locals said that the homeopath had been providing free medication on Friday for over 10 years.
Bottail union council outgoing chairman Abdul Mazid Bablu said, ‘The homeopath was a popular and generous person in our locality for his free treatment.’
He said that Sanaur on Tuesday insulted few locals for plucking mangoes from his orchard without his permission. ‘But, I doubt if it has any link with the killing,’ said Mazid.
Kushtia superintendent of police Proloy Chishim said that they were not sure about the motive behind the killing. ‘Personal issues might have connection with the killing and attack,’ he claimed.
‘Kushtia is a bad place…So many issues might have connection with the attack…If it is a militant attack, why they left the teacher alive,’ said Proloy.
The police investigators said that there were three cuts in the backside of Sanaur’s head and a single cut in the head of Saifuzzaman.
More than three dozen attacks had taken place against minority Sufi, Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, Hindus, Christians and foreigners in the past few months.
Islamist militancy suspects either were blamed or claimed responsibility for such killings of and attacks on an atheist student, two gay rights activists, a liberal professor, a Hindu tailor and a Sufi Muslim leader within two months.
US-based SITE Intelligence claimed that Islamic State group and ‘Bangladeshi branch of Al-Qaeda’ claimed the responsibility for the killing and attacks.
The government, however, denied the presence of Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in the country and said that some homegrown militants were behind the crimes.
Source: New Age