Secular doctor killed in ‘militant style’

A secular homeopath doctor has been killed in Kushtia town, what police believe to be in a fashion similar to previous murders of bloggers and secular activists.

- University teacher injured in attack

- ‘He was a doctor for the poor’

- Militant style killing, cops suspect

Sanaur Rahman, 60, a local homeopath doctor, died on the spot, our local correspondent reports quoting Sahabuddin Choudhury, officer-in-charge of Kushtia Model Police Station.

Another Saifuzzaman, 42, an assistant professor of Bangla department at Islami University, was injured in the attack. He has been shifted to a private hospital in Dhaka in critical condition.

About four miscreants were waiting. They intercepted the duo, riding a motorcycle, around 10:30am at Bottoil near Kushtia town, he said. “They were hacked indiscriminately.”

There were deep gashes on the heads, shoulders and chests of the victims, likely to have been caused by machetes, said Tapos Kumar Paul, residential medical officer of Kushtia General Hospital.

Proloy Chisim, superintendent of Kushtia police, said the manner of the killing seemed same as that of previous bloggers and secular activists. “We will probe the possibility of militant link.”

‘DOCTOR FOR THE POOR’

Sanaur Rahman, locally known as Sana Doctor, was a popular figure in his area who initiated free homeopath medical camps for the poor in his area.

Also, he was a man known to be of progressive mind and a lover of Baul philosophy.

“He gave us free homeopath treatments,” an elderly, Mirajul Alam, said on the note of the doctor. “We never found anything bad or harmful in him loving Baul songs.”

His son, Pavel Raihan, a university student in Dhaka, told The Daily Star his father was a “secular man with outspoken and progressive-minded mentality.”

Meanwhile, university teacher Saifuzzaman was said to be in close terms with the slain homeopath doctor as both loved Baul philosophy.