When on the morning of 23rd April we heard the news of murder of our teacher Prof. Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, we first couldn’t believe our ear, how could a person like him be killed and who could be his killers. His nature was gentle, never loud about anything and always created a friendly atmosphere around him when he was with us, his students. It was in the late eighties and early nineties we were at the university. He was one of the younger teachers of the English department of the university. He did not read many texts of English literature with us like other teachers. So far I can remember it was only during the masters he was given Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a great psychologically penetrating novel on human evil. Did he read any other texts with us? I can’t remember. That is why at that time his interaction with the students was not much.
But we who used to play departmental cricket knew him closely because he always took the responsibility to organise the department’s cricket team, remained present during the matches in the field all through. During the summer Rajshahi becomes one of the hottest places of the country. Every summer temperature usually used to remain above 40 degree Celsius in most days and defying that heat we used to do bowling, batting and fielding practices in the fields of the lush green campus of Motihar, the name by which the campus is called. When the practice session would over, we used to sit under the shade of trees and Prof. Siddiquee would give us money to buy singara and things like that from the cafeteria situated just at the entrance of the university stadium. I was the striking fast bowler of our team and as the organiser of the team he used to depend on me for taking wickets of the opponent team. When many of my classmates missed his intimacy as there was hardly any class with him, we the cricketers of the department found ourselves close to him all the years during our stay in the university. As a teacher he was very affectionate to us, I must say. After leaving the campus, about 20 years have passed, and I never met him even for once, yet memories about him remain fresh in my mind. And they now come flocking to my mind after his death that is very shocking. It was just bewildering to know that ‘his neck was hacked at least three times and was 70-80% slit.’ It was unacceptable.    
After the grisly murder on that fateful day, the features about his character that surfaced in the media were inadequate. That he used to play ‘Tanpura’, wrote poems and short stories, lead a cultural group called Komol Gandhar and edit a biannual literary magazine with the same name, was not enough to describe him; a soft-spoken and genial person, he used to love cricket as well and when the country was yet to achieve ICC’s status as an ODI and Test playing nation, he gave his precious little effort to improve cricket, at least in its departmental competition of Rajshahi University. His son who studies civil engineering at RUET and his daughter who was a student of the same department where he taught must know what a great father they had. His wife who lost her speech at his murder must know what a loving husband hers was. The numerous others, his colleagues, his students, his neighbours and relatives all who used to be in close and intimate touch with him must know what a welcoming and affable person he could be.  
No, no, his is not a revolutionary zeal and he never wrote or spoke against religion in public. In fact, his heart was toned with piety and used to offer prayers like any other practicing Muslim. This very fact makes his murder still more puzzling to many. The manner he was killed was similar to the killing of the atheist bloggers who were critical of Islam and its Prophet. Have the hideous killers who have their heart in darkness expanded their target to include cultural activists like Prof. Siddiquee as well? If it is so then this predicament is very hard.
And yet he was not the first professor from the Rajshahi University to have been murdered. In February this year, a court handed down life sentences to two Islamist militants for the murder of another professor, Mohammad Yunus. Before that two other teachers were killed. After the brutal killing of Prof. Siddiquee his fellow teachers and students in the university are, naturally, crying foul; and they have boycotted classes demanding immediate arrest of his killers. But eight days on the police at Rajshahi is yet to make any headway to the tragic incident. But the sport of death in the country that is going on in the country for quite some times remains unabated. His death is followed with quick succession the deaths of a former jail guard and two other citizens, one Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Tonoy Majumder at Kalabagan in the capital.    
At a time when the law and order situation is breaking down, collapsing bit by bit and people are feeling increasingly insecure with their lives, the IG of police is ironically telling the citizens to take their own measures to protect themselves. Is he telling a professor to stop going to his department for giving lectures to his students? Or is he telling him to carry a knife or a pistol while outside his house? Should every citizen now guard themselves in that way? What a society then we will be   going to live in?
One thing must be admitted by all concerned that something has gone very wrong in Bangladesh and it is time to find out where that wrong is and eliminate that. Utterance of tough words as the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made recently in the wake of these killings about the hideous killers will not alone be enough. If the spiral of death cannot be stopped now, it will make our society still more evil, will lead it to still more malevolence, making peace and safety of all citizens a distant dream.   

The writer can be contacted at: [email protected]