Prominent Bangladeshi writer stabbed

The attacker stood behind Zafar Iqbal and started stabbing him in the head during a seminar at a public university campus in Sylhet where he teaches electronic and electrical engineering

A prominent teacher, writer and promoter of secular values was attacked at a university in a northeastern city in Bangladesh on Saturday, according to police sources.

The attacker, a bearded man in his mid-20s, was caught by Iqbal's colleagues, students and police at the scene. He was also injured when he was thoroughly beaten by some in the crowd.

Iqbal, regarded as a top-selling author and celebrity speaker, has been threatened by radical Islamists in the past.  He is very popular among young people for his public speeches and books that promote logic and secular values.

Bangladesh is a South Asian Muslim-majority nation of 160 million.  It is ruled by mostly secular laws based on British common law.

Iqbal is a champion of free speech and secularism in Bangladesh, which has experienced a rise in Islamic militancy in recent years.