The president of Diyala University, in northeastern Iraq, was arrested by Iraqi troops today and led away from his home in a hood and handcuffs, the Associated Press reported. The Sunni party accused the government security forces of sectarian bias in the arrests of the president, Nazar al-Khafaji, and of a local poltician in Diyala province, who are both Sunni.

An unidentified official of the Iraqi army told the AP that Mr. al-Khafaji was a suspect in the killing of “several professors” at the university, but the official did not provide any evidence to support the allegations. The president’s nephew, who works for him as a driver and was in the house at the time of the raid, told the news agency that troops had also seized several computers and books.

The province of Diyala, whose population is mostly Sunni Arab, has a Shiite governor and “has proven among the most difficult of Iraq’s 18 provinces to pacify,” according to the AP. Shiites dominate elected offices, it said, because Sunnis boycotted the 2005 provincial elections.

Academe has suffered in the sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites. University campuses have been the targets suicide bombers, and according to the AP, nearly 400 Iraqi academics have been assassinated in the strife. —Aisha Labi