Bangladeshi court jails Islamist for life over attack on leading writer
DHAKA: A Bangladeshi court on Tuesday sentenced an Islamist to life in prison for trying to kill a prominent nonreligious writer and teacher by stabbing him several times during a university workshop in 2018.
Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, a renowned science fiction writer and teacher at the Shahjalal University of Science and Innovation in the northern city of Sylhet, was stabbed 6 times in his head, neck and left hand in March 2018.
The Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal in northeastern Sylhet sentenced 28-year-old found guilty Foyzul Hasan to life in jail, another to four years in prison and acquitted 4 others in the case over the murder attempt on writer Iqbal.
The decision observed that implicated Hasan was not related to any extremist attire however was influenced by jihadist literature and he thought that Iqbal mocked Solomon, one of the Scriptural prophets likewise revered in Islam, in among the books he composed for kids.
The 68-year old professor was a professors of state-run Shahjalal University of Science and Innovation (SUST) when he was assaulted on the school of the very same university by Hasan, who was a citizen of a location surrounding to the university.
Hasan, who was a former trainee of a conventional Islamic seminary, was captured by trainees right away after the attack and significantly beaten up by the mad trainees.
A recipient of Bangladesh’s leading literary reward, the Bangla Academy Award, in 2004, Iqbal is known for his nonreligious activism and sci-fi writings, books and paper columns on social problems, particularly criticising religious extremism and corruptions.
The judge said Hasan believed a children’s book written by Iqbal buffooned and libelled Solomon, among the Biblical prophets also revered in Islam.
“Loss of sight gripped those who carry out such attacks,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had said not long after the attack and advised Bangladeshis to remain alert to the danger of extremism. Hasan stabbed Iqbal on the head, back and left hand. Iqbal was right away hurried to a local healthcare facility and later was flown to a military medical facility in Dhaka for much better treatment.
The professor, who likewise studied and taught in universities in the United States, is a bestselling author and celeb speaker who routinely appears on campuses across the country also to inspire youth about education and worths as a longstanding champ of free speech and secularism.
“He (Hasan) told us that it was his duty as a Muslim to withstand those who work versus Islam (and) Dr Zafar Iqbal was an opponent of Islam,” said Colonel Ali Haider Azad Ahmed of elite anti-crime Fast Action Battalion (RAB) at that time.
Bangladesh has seen gruesome attacks on secular activists, spiritual minorities, blog writers and foreigners, a lot of whom have actually been hacked to death with machetes.
Released at Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:05:34 +0000