Dhaka, Mar 5 (IANS): Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday visited writer Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, who was stabbed by an attacker at a university last week and was hospitalised.

Iqbal, known for his secular activism and science fiction writing, was stabbed in the back of his head by an assailant while speaking at a two-day fair on the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology campus in Sylhet city on Saturday.

The writer suffered six knife injuries to the head, back and left hand. He was taken to Sylhet's MAG Osmani Medical College following the attack but was later shifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on Hasina's instructions.

Hasina went to see Iqbal in the afternoon and "instructed everything possible be done for him", said her Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim.

"The Prime Minister was at the hospital for nearly an hour. She also spoke to the medical board formed for his care," Karim was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com.

Doctors said Iqbal was out of danger and "will take some time to recover".

The attacker, a madrasa student named Faizul Hasan, was apprehended by teachers and students and beaten. He was later taken into custody by the police.

The 24-year-old madrasa student dubbed the famed writer as an "enemy of Islam", due to which he attempted to kill him.

Hasan's parents were also detained by the police late on Sunday from Sylhet city's Madina Market area.