By Syed Zain Al-Mahmood
DHAKA, Bangladesh--Bangladeshi authorities said the killing of a
university professor earlier this month wasn't an assassination by
an extremist group as had been previously thought.
The Rapid Action Battalion, an elite police unit, announced over
the weekend that revenge was the motive behind the stabbing death
of Shafiul Islam, a professor of sociology at the University of
Rajshahi, on November 15.
A group of men have confessed to killing Mr. Islam in
retaliation for allegedly insulting the wife of one of the men,
Mufti Mahmud Khan, a commander and spokesman for the unit said
Sunday.
"A total of 11 people were involved in this crime," Cmdr. Khan
said. "We have arrested the main suspects and we will catch the
others."
The professor was hacked to death near his house on campus,
shocking the country and leading to calls for tighter security at
universities. Last week, another university in northern Bangladesh
was temporarily closed after a student died during a clash between
two factions of the student wing of the ruling Awami League.
Shortly after Mr. Islam's killing in Rajshahi, a self-proclaimed
militant outfit calling itself "Ansar al-Islam Bangladesh-2" set up
a Facebook page to claim responsibility, giving rise to speculation
that radical Islamists might have targeted the professor, who was a
follower of the humanist Lalon sect.
At the time some security analysts suggested the Facebook page
may have been set up to divert attention from the true motive for
the killing.
Cmdr. Khan of the Rapid Action Battalion said detectives have
found no evidence of a militant link to the crime.
Cmdr. Khan said Abdus Samad, an influential local contractor,
had an altercation with Mr. Islam after the latter allegedly
insulted Mr. Samad's wife, a university employee. Mr. Samad
admitted to gathering a group together to attack Mr. Islam but
claimed they had not planned on killing him, according to Cmdr.
Khan.
Mr. Samad is among six men arrested by the Rapid Action
Battalion for murder on Sunday. He remains in custody and couldn't
be reached for comment. He doesn't yet have a lawyer on record. His
wife also couldn't be reached for comment.
Write to Syed Zain Al-Mahmood at zain.al-mahmood@wsj.com
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