Death threats to academics in Bangladesh, including to the State Minister for Home Asaduzzman Khan, are fuelling a climate of fear. These threats add to the terror caused by the killing of three online critics of religious nationalismin the country this year.
Militants in Bangladesh have targeted secularist writers in recent years even as the government has tried to crack down on hardline Islamist groups seeking to enforce Sharia law on the 160 million-strong South-Asian nation.
Asaduzzman Khan told Reuters that the police are investigating threats received by over a dozen academics, ranging from the Vice-Chancellor of the capital’s Dhaka University to a former chief of the university grants commission.
“I have ordered a thorough investigation,” Khan said, adding that the threats came from Al Qaeda Ansarullah Bangla Team, an Islamist extremist group based in Bangladesh that claimed responsibility for the killings of the bloggers.
In recent months, police in Bangladesh have arrested 15 people, including the head of information technology of Coca-Cola Co, under the suspicion of links with Islamic State, as fears grow that the militant group could be extending its influence among Muslims in South Asia.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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