Zafar Iqbal, wife get death threat

Renowned writer and Prof of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and his wife received death threats from the same mobile number that issued threats to at least three others.

They are Jahangirnagar University's Prof Anu Muhammad, litterateur and journalist Moinul Ahsan Saber and writer Morshed Shafiul Hasan.

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Dr Iqbal's wife Yesmeen Huq, a professor of the Shahjalal university, received an SMS on her mobile phone at around 12:17am on Thursday.

The SMS reads, “Welcome to our new top list! Your breath may stop at anytime -ABT.”

About two hours later, Dr Iqbal received an SMS on his cell phone from the same number, 01629967551, which read, “Hi unbeliever! We will strangulate you soon.”

The couple were then staying at Banani DOHS in the capital. Returning to Sylhet on Friday, they filed a general diary with Jalalabad Police Station.

“Despite threats, I have to discharge my duties,” Prof Iqbal told our Moulvibazar correspondent. He had received threats earlier, but this time his wife got too, he said.

In the messages threatening eminent personalities, the sender sometimes mentioned his affiliation with banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, sometimes with ISIS.

Prof Anu Muhammad, who has been heading a campaign against the proposed Rampal power plant near the Sundarbans, received two threatening SMSs on Thursday.

One message read, “Say 'yes' to Rampal, otherwise you must will be hacked to death incredibly by us!” while another read “Death keeps no calendar, and Ansatullah knows no time!”

Prof Anu filed a GD with the capital's Rampura Police Station.

In the SMS sent to Moinul's phone on the same day, the sender said, “Welcome to our new top list. You will be killed today or tomorrow! – ISIS”

An SMS to writer Morshed read, "Do you wish to lose your top from neck? If don't so, turn on the way to Islam."