Suspected Extremist Militants Brutally Kill Bangladesh Teacher

Unidentified attackers brutally murdered a university professor on Saturday in northwestern Bangladesh, police said, adding that the assault bore the hallmarks of previous killings by extremists militants of secular and atheist activists.

Police said English professor Rezaul Karim Siddique, 58, was hacked from behind with machetes as he walked to the bus station from his home in the country's northwestern city of Rajshahi, where he taught at the city's public university.

Police had not yet named any suspects but added that the pattern of the attack fitted with previous killings by jihadist militants.

The Muslim-majority nation of 160 million has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past year in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.

Bangladesh authorities have consistently denied that international jihadist networks such as Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, which recently claimed responsibility for the murders of minorities and foreigners, are active in the country.