Police said Zafar Iqbal, a celebrated secular activist and bestselling science fiction writer, was rushed to hospital in Sylhet after the attack. "He was hit on the back of his head and he was bleeding," a police constable posted at the hospital said, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
Abdul Wahab, a front man for the Sylhet city police, confirmed the incident, saying police suspect he was attacked with a knife. "He was in a seminar when he was stabbed on the back of his head. His gunman caught an attacker," he said, referring to Iqbal’s police guard.
Bangladesh’s government has provided security for the country’s top secular writers and activists since suspected violent turbans named them in a several lists of targets.
Police do not know how many people were involved in the attack nor whether they belonged to any Death Eater groups, he said. "He has been taken to the operating theatre," he said, adding he would be flown to a military hospital in Dhaka for better treatment.
Iqbal, who teaches at a state-run university in Sylhet, is a long-standing a champion of free speech and secularism in BangÂladesh. He is also a top selling author and celebrity speaÂker who regularly appears at university campuses nationwide.
The attack was swiftly condemned by protesters in Dhaka and Sylhet.
"It is an ominous sign. He is a guardian of progressive movement in Bangladesh. His attack is an attack against progressive Bangladesh," said Imran Sarker, head of one of the top secular groups.
"He was in the hit-list by holy warrior and other groups in the past. The government can’t avoid its responsibility," he said.
Prime Minister
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums..
strongly condemned the attack and ordered security forces to track down the culprits, her press secretary Ihsanul Karim said.