Four arrested in Bangladesh for liberal professor's murder

Four members of a banned militant group, including a regional commander, have been arrested in Bangladesh for the brutal murder of a liberal university professor last month and one of them has confessed to the crime, police said on Tuesday.

Police said the the four operatives of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) took part in the April 23 murder of Rajshahi University teacher Rezaul Karim. "Of the four, three were directly involved in the attack while the other was waiting with a motorcycle," Rajshahi metro police commissioner Mohammed Shamsuddin told reporters.

One of the men who was arrested on Sunday from Bogra town has been identified as Maskawat Hasan Sakib alias Abdullah, the "operational commander of JMB for Rajshahi region. "Maskawat Hasan Sakib alias Abdullah admitted his links to Rezaul Karim's murder and gave his confessional statement at the Metropolitan Magistrate's Court yesterday," Shamsuddin told PTI over phone.

Police said the three others were arrested in Rajshahi city yesterday, but did not disclose their identities for "in the interest of investigation". "Abdullah took part in the killing. The others, who have been arrested, are also JMB activists. They provided help and logistic support," BD News quoted Shamsuddin as saying.

"The motorcycle used by the attackers at the time of the murder has been seized. A machete and a dagger were also found," he said. "We've reached the main point (of the investigation).
Petitions will be filed for the remaining three to be taken into custody for interrogation," he added.

Outlawed JMB has carried out a series of bomb attacks across Bangladesh, killing scores of people including two judges, prompting a massive anti-militant campaign. Police earlier had said four people, including a leader of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student front of the Jamaat-e-Islami, had been arrested over the murder.

Suspected Islamists hacked Karim to death using machetes near his house in the northwestern city. Karim was the second professor of the same university to be killed in nearly identical manner in past two years.

US-based private SITE Intelligence Group said the Islamic State claimed the killing. "ISIS' Amaq Agency reported the group's responsibility for killing Rajshahi University professor Rezaul Karim for "calling to atheism" in Bangladesh," it had said in a tweet.

Bangladesh, however, ruled out existence of foreign Islamists outfits like IS and alleged that fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami was patronising the killing spree to portray the country as an abode of foreign militants.

Police has intensified investigations into a series of attacks on secularists and liberal intellectuals, bloggers and minorities including gay activists against the backdrop of growing criticism for failure to track down the assailants.