In his death, the nation has lost one of its great children who had unswerving faith in the spirit of our great liberation war and unflagging support for the cause of progressive radicalism. Nothing can make up for such loss. So, we, the pro-liberation people, perhaps had wanted to bring these atrocious acts of brutality to a halt. We wished we would no longer lose our intellectuals who are the conscience of the nation. We knew it full well who wanted the elimination of our eminent intellectuals in the war of Independence? We have awakened to the realisation that the same evil forces might have been continuing their wicked operation on the sly.

Meanwhile Professor Yunus killing is another heinous act of brutality, inhumanity and ruthlessness. The chilling incident of his assassination makes our hair stand on end when we imagine that an innocent sexagenarian professor during his post-prayer morning walk has been chopped indiscriminately to death. As the assailants of Humayan Azad made fierce attacks on his neck, head, face with a view to killing him, so were the attacks on Professor Yunus to ensure that he is killed. Given his age, nerve etc, perhaps Dr. Azad did pull through but the old diabetic patient Professor Yunus could not endure the assault.

What was Professor Yunus' offence? So far as I know, he was a good sort at bottom especially at this time of the dearth of good people. He hailed from the same thana that I too, have come from. He was my wife's teacher at Rajshahi University. So from first-hand sources, I have come to know that Professor Yunus was a very talented student and a successful teacher. He was hardly tempted to run after personal aggrandisement. His artless sincerity and professional dexterity attracted his students and colleagues. But these are not supposed to prompt his killers. What provoked them was his strong ideological stance. Like Professor Azad, Professor Yunus, too, was a great believer in the undying spirit of the war of Independence. In addition, he had a firm faith in secularism and progressivism. Not only that, he tried to disseminate these ideals among people around him. He had been a great organiser in our liberation war. So endowed with the spirit of the freedom struggle, he courageously spoke out against all anti-liberation activities. He was quite tough and uncompromising as for his ideals. And this is likely to sow the seeds of malice in the minds of his extreme ideological opponents.

There are many reasons to believe that the assailants on Humayun Azad and those on Professor Yunus belong to the same group whose modus operandi is almost the same. Professor Azad clearly pointed the finger of suspicion at them. But it is a matter of great regret that our law enforcers could not even touch a hair of their head. Law enforcement agency like Rab (Rapid Action Battalion) is moving heaven and earth to hunt down criminals and perhaps has scored a century in so-called crossfire. But all have utterly failed to nab the assailants of Doctor Azad. Had they been able to capture them, or if at least they had continued their operation, Professor Yunus could have possibly escaped this consequence. But all efforts have proved futile as a result of which the assailants have eventually become immune to police probe. They are now jumping on people belonging to Azad's ideology with renewed interest.

So Professor Yunus killing is not a stray incident. It seems to be a cold-blooded murder, which is evident in the selection of time and place of the occurrence. Professor Yunus has been killed while a number of other university professors have been threatened with extinction. Among others, Professor Arefin Siddique and Professor Muntasir Mamoon of Dhaka University, Professor Mohammad Zafar Ikbal of Shahjalal University, Professor Abdul Khaleque, Professor Hasan Azizul Haq, Professor Sanat Kumar Shaha and Moloy Kumar Bhowmick of Rajshahi University and Professor Abul Ahsan Choudhury and this writer (of Islamic University) are on the threat- list.

What is the motive for this sort of killing or intimidation. It is as clear as anything that through killing or bullying they want to obstruct the process of nation building through the spirit of our Independence. Lying in the green fields and beautiful landscape of our Sonar Bangla, they dream of Kabul or Kandahar! And they themselves want to turn into Talibans! This is the angst of our time.

Should we then fall back upon our (not-so-active on this count) administration to save our intellectuals from this sort of planned killing and coercion? This may be a cry in the wilderness. The alliance government appears to be on a slippery ground in dealing with issues like that.

So we look forward to our people. When we are left destitute, and the government repeatedly fails to take care, we have recourse to our people who will either get things done by the government or replace it on pretext of failure.

Rashid Askari is Associate Professor and Chairman, Department of English, Islamic University, Kushtia.