Khalid Hameed, a professor of the English department, was stabbed to death by one of his students in Bahawalpur’s SE College on Wednesday.
Khateeb Hussain, a student of the fifth semester in the English department was identified as the attacker. He surrendered himself to the police after killing the professor. An FIR has been lodged against him under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Students of the college said that a “farewell party” was going to be organised in the college on March 21 where male and female students were supposed to perform Jhoomar – a cultural dance on folk music.
The attacker believed that this was “un-Islamic.” The students at the college described Hussain as a “very good” student. They said, howver, that they saw a change in him in the last three months. He was not coming to college regularly and taking classes only two or three days in a week.
Hussain believed that professor Hameed had anti-Islamic views. The students contradicted his statement and said that they never saw the professor expressing anti-religious views.
Officials at the college said that the Directorate of Student Affairs received letters from unidentified men on Tuesday saying that girls are being made to dance in the name of a function which is tantamount to “promoting vulgarity and Islam doesn’t allow it”.
“We will not allow promotion of such activities in the college,” the letter said. Professor Hameed’s son, Waleed, told SAMAA Digital that he spoke with his father last night about the matter and he said that he had nothing to do with the farewell party because the administration was organising it.
“I demand justice,” Waleed said. “I am feeling threatened. We have not been given security.” Police officials say that the suspect has confessed to murdering the professor and a special investigation team has been formed to probe the case.
An official said that the police tried to contact the family of the attacker but they found his home locked when they reached there.
