Staff Reporter :The teachers, students and general staff of the Rajshahi University [RU] demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the killers of Sociology Department teacher Dr AKM Shafiul Islam through protest rally and mourning procession in the campus on Sunday.The Rajshahi University Teacher Association [RUTA] yesterday announced a series of protest programmes along with giving a 15-day ultimatum to the government to arrest the killers.As per the programmes, there will be no class and exam on November 17 and 18. It will also organize a human chain in the campus on November 19. Besides, all the teachers and academic members will wear black badges for next seven days.Apart from it, the RU Sociology Department declared three days mourning. No classes and examinations will be held in the department during this period, Wardatul Akmam, Chairman of the department said. Meanwhile, no classes and examinations were also held yesterday as RUTA declared boycotting class-exams protesting the killing. Over 500 teachers, students, staffs under the banner of RUTA brought out a mourning procession at 11:15 yesterday from the Senate Bhaban of the campus. It also organized a rally there demanding immediate arrest of the killers.Besides, RU Kendrio Sangskritk Jote, Progressive Students Alliances of RU, Bangladesh Chhatra League [BCL] staged separate protest rallies at the campus. Speakers at RUTA rally alleged that the militant organizations are trying to make a vacuum in the nation’s intellectual community. They also urged the countrymen to make strong movement against them.RU student advisor Prof Sadequl Arefin Matin, Sociology department’s chairman Prof Wardatul Akmam, RUTA president Dr Kamrul Hasan Mojumder addressed at the programme.When contacted, RU Vice-Chancellor Prof Muhammad Mizanuddin said, “The law enforcers have been asked to take all necessary steps to arrest the killer of Prof Shafiul. The university authorities will help them with all out efforts.”The VC also admitted that as the real perpetrators of previous killings had gone unpunished, killings have been taking place one after another.The slain professor was a follower of baul saint Lalon Shah. He married thrice. His second wife divorced him two years ago while the third left him four months allegedly for his devotion to baulism, Sirajul Islam, colleague of the victim said.A gang of unidentified miscreants hacked to death Prof Shafiul with machetes at the entrance to Bihas in Chauddapai area near to the university campus on Saturday afternoon.Police fail to make any headwayThe police are yet to find out a vital clue behind the grisly murder Prof Shafiul Islam though twenty four hours have already been elapsed in the meantime.But a self-proclaimed militant organization, namely Ansar al Islam Bangladesh-2, claimed responsibility of the killing in a FB page just few hours after the incident.The police so far have detained 20 persons including Humayun Ahmed, Principal of Islamia College, a stronghold of Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, suspecting their involvement in the heinous crime. Of them, two were arrested on Saturday night hours after the murder.Earlier, Prof Entajul Haque, Register of the RU, filed a case with the concerned police station accusing several unnamed people yesterday. Police said Principal Ahmed was picked up on Sunday morning from Binodpur adjacent to the university. Besides, three others were detained during the raid same day. The arrestees were undergoing interrogation over the murder. In this backdrop, State Minister for Home Asaduzaman Khan Kamal yesterday said that the investigators [of different agencies] were not ruling out the possibility of involvement of any political party or militant outfit.Our Rajshahi Correspondent, quoting Officer-in-Charge of Motihar Police Station Alamgir Hossain, said that two witnesses of the incident Habibur Rahman and Dip Hasan have been detained on Saturday night. All the arrestees were undergoing intensive interrogation, OC also said. But he didn’t disclose the identity of other detainees for the sake of better investigation. OC further said that police were proceeding into the investigation taking all the related matters into consideration. Meanwhile, unidentified persons in a FB community page, named “Ansar al Islam Bangladesh-2,” have claimed the responsibility of killing Prof Shafiul.”Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Our Mujahedeen’s [today] have killed a murtad [atheist] who had prohibited of wearing burka for female students in classrooms,” said the first post in the FB. The FB page is believed to be created at around 7:0pm on Saturday about 3 hours after the murder.Some other posts, which were posted one after another, quoted a report published on April 3, 2010 in the Daily Sangram, a daily newspaper of Jammat-e Islami. The newspaper report said that Professor Shafiul had banned burka for the female students in his class.When asked, OC said that any influential group intentionally might have created the page to hide the main culprits. “However, we are also giving importance over the personal life and political affiliation of the deceased,” he added. Three teachers killed in last 10 yearsWith the killing of Prof Shafiul, the death toll of the teachers rosed to three in last 10 years.Earlier, on December 24, 2004, Prof Yunus Ali of Economics Department was killed by members of banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen at Binodpur area, near at the university.Abdul Halim, youngest brother of Prof Yunus filed a murder case with Motihar Police Station on the day. After about six years, on January 28, 2010, a lower court sentenced two JMB men to death and acquitted six others accused in the Prof Yunus killing case.This case is waiting for disposal in the High Court [HC].In another incident, Prof Sheikh Taher Ahmed, 59, of Geology and Mining Department had gone missing on February 1, 2006. Two days later, on February 3, his body was recovered from inside a septic tank in the university residential area.Sanjid Alvi, son of the slain teacher filed a case with the concerned police station while police gave charge sheet against six men on March 18, 2007.On May 22, 2008, a Rajshahi speedy trial tribunal sentenced four people to death including a pro Jamaat-e-Islami teacher Mia Mohammad Moinuddin in Prof Taher murder case, acquitting two others.The convicts appealed to the HC against the verdict where HC upheld the death sentence of two and commuted the death penalty of two others to life imprisonment on April 21, 2013.Additional cops have been deployed at the campus to avert any untoward situation.Prof Shafiul was buried at family graveyard in his village home besides his father late Akhtaruzzaman’s grave after Johar prayer, family source said.
