March 19, 2004

Attack on Bangladesh Scholar Stirs Protests

By MARTHA ANN OVERLAND

The stabbing of a prominent professor of literature at the University of Dhaka has triggered widespread protests in Bangladesh, culminating in a nationwide strike this month. Students are demanding the arrest of the attackers, whom they believe to be Islamic fundamentalists upset by the professor's criticism of religious extremism.

For one day, much of Bangladesh was shut down after opposition parties called the strike to protest the stabbing, draw attention to the deteriorating status