*BANGLADESH SUSPENDS PROFESSOR*

Bangladesh College suspends professor for defaming the 'Prime Minister's father.

BANGLADESH'S most prestigious university has suspended a professor for writing a column critical of Prime Minister's Sheikh Hasina's father -

As the ruling party cracks down on dissent in a tense election year.

Morshed Hasan Khan was 'suspended until further notice' from Dhaka University, its vice chancellor said Tuesday, after the student wing of the Awami League staged angry rallies on campus.

University head Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman said Khan defamed Bangladesh's first post-independent president and Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in the controversial article published in a Bengali daily.

The professor of marketing was also accused of 'distorting the history' of Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971, the legacy of which remains contentious even today.

Dhaka University is regarded as a stronghold of liberalism and secularism in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, which has been ruled by Hasina's Awami League for more than nine years. 

Student supporters of the Awami League stormed Dhaka University's campus and declared Khan no longer welcome after the piece attracted a firestorm of publicity.

The professor has since expressed regret, posting an apology on his Facebook page

Teachers have been punished in the past for stances critical of Hasina's father. [Agencies]