Dhaka: Bangladesh police arrested an Islamist student on Sunday over the gruesome murder of a professor one day earlier, the latest such killing claimed by the Islamic State group.

On a tip-off, a police team arrested Hafizur Rahman from his residence at Chhotobangram area under Boalia Police Station in Rajshahi city.

He is the Secretary of Ward No. 19 unit of Islami Chhatra Shibir and second year Honours student of Public Administration Department of Rajshahi University, said Khondoker Jahidul Islam, Officer-in-Charge of Detective Branch (DB) of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.

He said the arrested person is being interrogated at the DB office.

Meanwhile, the case has been transferred to DB for infusing dynamism in its investigation process. 

Attackers wielding machetes almost beheaded English professor Rezaul Karim Siddique on Saturday in the northwestern city of Rajshahi, following a string of similar killings of secular activists by Islamist militants.

The 58-year-old was hacked to death as he walked to the bus station from his home.

Meanwhile, the classes and examinations of Rajshahi University have been stopped on Sunday to protest the English Department teacher's murder.

His students and colleagues say professor Siddiquee was a man of peace, literature and culture.

Some miscreants slaughtered Dr Siddiquee, 61, of Department of English of Rajshahi University (RU) in Shalbagan area under Boalia Police Station in the city. His body was buried in his village home last night.

Prof Siddiquee was born in Dargamaridai village under Bagmara Police Station in Rajshahi in 1955 and joined Rajshahi University in 1983 as lecturer. He left behind his wife, a daughter, a son and host of relatives and colleagues to mourn his death.

Siddique was the fourth professor from Rajshahi University to be killed by suspected Islamists in recent years.

Five secular bloggers and a publisher have also been murdered, as well as members of minority groups and foreigners, as Bangladesh reels from rising Islamist violence.

Police said that in each of the attacks on the bloggers and online activists, attackers hacked the victim to death with machetes or cleavers.

There was no immediate reaction from the government to the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility.

In the past it has denied IS has a presence in the country, instead blaming homegrown Islamist militants for the murders and the opposition for trying to destabilise the country.

A long-running political crisis in Bangladesh, which is majority Sunni Muslim but officially secular, has radicalised opponents of the government and analysts say Islamist extremists pose a growing danger.