DHAKA: Daesh claimed the killing of a university professor in Bangladesh on Saturday, police said.

Police said English Prof. Rezaul Karim Siddique, 58, was hacked from behind with machetes as he walked to the bus station from his home in the country’s northwestern city of Rajshahi, where he taught at the city’s public university.

“His neck was hacked at least three times and was 70-80 percent slit.

“We already suspected that it was carried out by militant groups,” a senior police officier said. Sakhawat Hossain, a fellow English professor from the university and a friend, said the slain teacher was a music lover and played the tanpura, a musical instrument popular in South Asia, and wrote poems and short stories.

Hundreds of students of Rajshahi University staged impromptu protests, marching on the campus in batches and shouting slogans, demanding the arrest of the killers, police said.