Dhaka – An unknown assailant stabbed well known science writer and physicist Muhammad Zafar Iqbal on a university campus in north-eastern Bangladesh, police said on Saturday.

The assailant carried out the attack on the 65-year old Iqbal, who is also a professor of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, when he was about to address a festival organised by his department in the university.

Students rushed the professor to Osmani Medical College Hospital in Sylhet, where the physicians said Iqbal was out of danger.

Police detained a suspected attacker, but his name could not be known immediately, said a police officer adding that they were still looking for the motive of the attack.

Several hundred students, both in Sylhet in the capital Dhaka, burst into demonstrations as the news broke out that the science writer was knifed on his campus.

They demanded investigation and finding the real criminal behind the attack as Iqbal was earlier threatened by the Islamist militants.

Zahir Uddin, proctor of the university said, the motive of the attack could not be known.

Television footage show, students and well wishers gathered at the gates of the medical college hospital after the came to know about the attacks.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack on the writer  asking the law enforcement agencies to trace the culprits immediately.

She ordered the authorities concerned to transport the professor to Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka for improved treatment, said the Prime Minister’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim.

According to sources, Iqbal was aboard an Airforce helicopter to be flown to Dhaka in the night.

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