RAJSHAHI: April 24, 2016. An English professor in Bangladesh was hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers while on his way to work at a local university. Professor Rezaul Karim Siddique, 58, was killed by several assailants with machetes while waiting for a bus near his home as he was making his way to work to Rajshahi University. Daesh claimed that its militants killed the professor because "he promoted atheism," according to the Amaq news agency that is affiliated with the extremist group. The attack was similar to those perpetrated by Daesh militants in the past, who have claimed killings of secularist bloggers in the country. The chief of Rajshahi's metropolitan police, Mohammad Shamsuddin, said the assailants used sharp weapons and struck from behind the neck, a method used by suspected Daesh militants to kill Bangladeshi bloggers and publishers in 2014 and 2015. Witnesses said two youth had arrived by motorbike and left the scene after the professor was killed, according to Shamsuddin. Several hundred students and teachers from Rajshahi University protested the murder, blocking a major highway that links the northern city with the capital, Dhaka. Protesters called on the government to immediately bring the killers to justice. Siddique's colleagues said he participated in diverse cultural activities in Rajshahi, but was not involved in any political party. In November 2014, a sociology teacher at the same university was killed in a similar attack claimed by a local faction of Daesh sympathizers. Five secularist bloggers and one publisher have been killed by suspected militants in Bangladesh since last year.