No breakthrough in writer-teacher Zafar Iqbal attack investigation

Apart from his ‘belief in militancy’, investigators have not got any major lead from the suspect arrested over the knife attack on Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal.

Prof Yasmeen Haque, wife of Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, speaks to the media at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on Saturday. Photo: asif mahmud ove Prof Yasmeen Haque, wife of Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, speaks to the media at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on Saturday. Photo: asif mahmud ove

Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal is being taken to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital after he was stabbed during a programme on Shahjalal University of Science and Technology campus on Saturday. Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal is being taken to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital after he was stabbed during a programme on Shahjalal University of Science and Technology campus on Saturday.

Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal is being taken to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital after he was stabbed during a programme on Shahjalal University of Science and Technology campus on Saturday. Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal is being taken to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital after he was stabbed during a programme on Shahjalal University of Science and Technology campus on Saturday.

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The celebrated writer and university teacher is the latest victim of a series of attacks on secular writers, bloggers and online activists in Bangladesh.

On Saturday, he sustained stab injuries in the back, arm and in the head from a sharp weapon during an event at the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in Sylhet city on Saturday.

A computer science and engineering professor at the university, Iqbal was airlifted to Dhaka’s Combined Military Hospital or CMH Saturday midnight after being treated at Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital.

Doctors in Dhaka said on Sunday he was out of danger, but must remain in hospital for a few days to recover.

The attacker was nabbed by teachers and students immediately. He has been now identified as 24-year-old madrasa student Faizul Hasan alias Shafiqur.

The Rapid Action Battalion or RAB took custody of him after the attack and handed over him to the police in Sylhet on Sunday.

The university authorities have started an anti-terror case against the detained suspect and a few other unidentified people on charges of attempted murder.

Law enforcers have detained six other people, including two relatives of Faizul and his parents.

After raiding his Sylhet home and ancestral home at a Sunamganj village, the police failed to trace his parents until late on Sunday, when they were picked up in Sylhet city.

The police have been providing security for Prof Iqbal since October 2016 following death threats from Islamist militants.

At least three policemen stood within a few yards from the seats on the stage where the teacher sat during the attack on Saturday afternoon.

Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Golam Kibria said late on Sunday they have withdrawn two police personnel who were on duty.

It was a festival organised by the electrical and electronic engineering department. Zafar Iqbal was chief guest at the event.

Witnesses said the suspect came from behind the stage and attacked with a knife.

Assailant Faizul lives in an area near the university with his parents and siblings.

Investigators said citing the suspect that he carried out the attack ‘to kill Prof Zafar Iqbal because he is an enemy of Islam’ and that he ‘believed in militancy’.  

His father, retired madrasa teacher Maulana Atiqur Rahman, hails from a village in the neighbouring district of Sunamganj.

Police raided Faizul’s Sylhet home the same night after his identity was confirmed, but found it locked.

His uncle Fazlur Rahman, who lives nearby, has been detained for questioning.

Prof Yasmeen Haque, wife of Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, speaks to the media at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on Saturday. Photo: asif mahmud ove

On Sunday, the police raided Faizul’s Sunamganj home at Kaliakapan Village in Dirai Upazila, but found no one there, before picking up his another uncle, Abdul Kahar, for quizzing.

Locals told bdnews24.com Faizul was the second among Maulana Atiqur’s three sons and two daughters.

Atiqur lived in Sylhet with his two sons and the other one is an expatriate.

“Faizul studied in madrasa, like his brothers. The family left the village in 2008, when he was attending the local Dhal Madrasa,” said Kaliakapan resident Maqbul Mia.

Another local Abbas Mia, who described Faizul as introvert, said he used to visit the village once in a while and that he used to sell clothes as a roaming vendor besides his studies.

Faizul’s aunt – father Atiqur’s sister – Rehana Begum also lives in the same village. She told bdnews24.com the family did not visit much after moving to Sylhet.

She, however, said she has no idea how Faizul might get involved in militancy.

Abdus Sheesh, an elderly Kaliakapan resident, said the family left the village after local clerics and Faizul’s father had a disagreement over religious issues.

Faizul was initially detained at the university’s academic building. The students beat him up before handing him over to the RAB.

Photos from SUST showed the young, bearded suspect lying on the floor with blood on his face.

He was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to the hospital in the Sylhet cantonment. The RAB handed him to the police on Sunday afternoon.

At a media briefing on Sunday, Sylhet-based RAB-9 Commander Col Ali Haider Azad Ahmad said they found a knife and a key on Faizul.

Prof Muhammed Zafar Iqbal is being taken to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital after he was stabbed during a programme on Shahjalal University of Science and Technology campus on Saturday.

“He claimed to have cleared the Fazil exams and enrolled for Alim before dropping out. But he is providing misleading information about the madrasa he went to.”

The suspect said during interrogation he carried out the attack as he considers Prof Iqbal as ‘an enemy of Islam’.

“It seems that he believes in militancy. That’s what we have got so far, nothing more can be said without further investigations,” Col Ahmad said.

The police have also detained a Sylhet resident who runs a computer shop in the city. Faizul used to work for him for a brief period earlier this year.

Speaking to the media in Dhaka on Sunday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said, “As per the information gathered so far, Faizul may have worked at the computer shop or frequented it.”

On being asked about the attack taking place despite police being present at the scene, he said, “Let us investigate more, no comments should be made before further probe.”

The SUST authorities have also opened their own inquiry.

A three-member panel headed by sociology professor Abdul Gani has been formed, said Vice-Chancellor Farid Uddin Ahmed.

The two others are chemistry professor Saiful Islam, and computer science and engineering teacher Shahidur Rahman.

[Chief Crime Correspondent Liton Haider provided inputs for this story]