Expressing concern over the threat, Awami League (AL) General Secretary Abdul Jalil in a statement said the Jamaat-Shibir patronised by the government has been trying to make the country a sanctuary of the Islamist militants. And to materialise their blue print, they want to kill the non-communal, democratic intellectuals, politicians and litterateurs, he added.

He demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of culprits and measures to ensure safety to the teachers.

Leaders of Forum for Secular Bangladesh in a statement said before coming to power, Jamaat-e-Islami threatened noted poets, litterateurs, artists and intellectuals and incited the fundamentalist militants to kill them.

It urged all to be united against the evil forces and to uproot them from the country.

President of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) Manzurul Ahsan Khan and General Secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim said it seems the government has been using the law enforcers to encourage and protect the killers as the law enforcement agencies have been showing quite indifferent attitudes even after the death threat to the professors.

The leaders said the militants have been issuing death threats to the professors time and again. As no steps were taken against them, they dared to pronounce death threat to Hasan Azizul Haque from a rally.

Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Goshti, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Bangabandhu Lekhak Parishad, Rajshahi University (RU) Bangabandhu Parishad, Anti-Imperial Teachers' Forum, Rajshahi Workers Party and Gono Sanghoti Andolon also condemned the threat to the eminent professors.

Former RU Vice Chancellor Prof Abdul Khalek and Prof Saidur Rahman Khan also expressed deep concern over the death threat.

Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) activists of RU threatened Prof Hasan Azizul Haque with death for his speech on education and secularism at a seminar on Monday.

The Shibir leaders issued the death threat in a rally where they branded the eminent litterateur 'an atheist and enemy of Islam', declared him persona non grata on the campus and burnt his effigy.