Bangladeshi professor found dead

By Waliur Rahman
BBC News, Dhaka

Police in Bangladesh have recovered the body of a university professor two days after he was reported missing.

The body of Dr S Taher Ahmed of the Geology and Mining Department of Rajshahi University was found in a manhole near his home on campus.

Police said the body of Professor Taher Ahmed, 58, had several marks and was decomposing when recovered on Friday.

Police detained three men for questioning, including the caretaker of the house where the professor lived.

They said he may have been killed soon after he went missing on returning from the capital Dhaka on Wednesday.

'Peaceful man'

The commissioner of Rajshahi police, Naeem Ahmed, said he suspected the death was a planned murder, but could not immediately say who was behind the killing.

The professor's colleagues say he was a peaceful man and was not known to have any enemies. His family lives in Dhaka.

Opposition student groups have called for a strike on the campus on Saturday in protest at the professor's killing.

A literature professor, Humayan Azad, was seriously wounded in a knife attack in Dhaka in February 2004. He died in his sleep in Germany later that year.

Dr Azad blamed hardline Islamists for the attack, but no-one has so far been charged.