AL leader and college student shot dead in capital
Two people, including former general secretary of Awami League’s Motijheel unit, were shot dead in Shajahanpur’s Amtola Mosque area in the capital city Thursday night.
The deceased were AL leader Zahidul Islam aka Tipu, 58, and college student Samia Afrin aka Priti, 22. Priti was on a rickshaw stuck in a traffic jam at the time. The driver of Zahidul’s microbus also got shot in the incident.
The shooting took place at around 10:15pm on Thursday night. Deceased Zahidul’s wife Farhana Islam is a ward councillor from Motijheel’s reserved seats for women in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).
Witnesses and police sources say, the microbus carrying Zahidul was stuck in a traffic jam at Shahjahanpur. Two masked (some say helmet wearing) miscreants arrived from the other side of the road and started shooting at Zahidul’s microbus. Several bullets went through the window and wounded Zahidul. The driver, Munna, also sustained bullet wounds.
The miscreants continued firing shots till they fled the scene through the road divider.
Some of the witnesses said that the shooters fled on a motorcycle which was kept on the opposite side of the road.
After the perpetrators fled, people saw a young girl, Samia, lying on the road. Locals took the three injured to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Immediately after the incident, several intelligence agencies arrived at the spot. They collected bullet shells, the broken pieces of the window among other evidences.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Shahjahanpur police station sub-inspector (SI) Md Hayat said police will identify the perpetrators soon through analysing the CCTV footages.
Police also said that Zahidul was an accused in the murder of Jubo League leader Riyazul Haque Milky. He was arrested and prisoned for a lengthy period. Later he got bail.
Milky, who was Dhaka South Metropolitan Jubo League unit’s organising secretary, was shot dead in front of the Shoppers World shopping mall in Gulshan on 19 July 2013.
Zahidul lives in the Bagicha area of Khilgaon. He was in a dispute with a group of Awami League members about setting up illegal shops on the footpath and exerting power in the Motijheel area, said several party members.
Police, however, have made no comments about the motive behind his murder. The Police officials, though, believe it was a planned murder.
Speaking to media at the DMCH on Friday night, Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s deputy commissioner (Motijheel zone) M. A. Ahad said that they were confirmed that a person wearing a helmet fired the shots.
Some of Zahidul’s supporters, who arrived at the DMCH, said that Zahidul was returning to his home in Bagicha from the AGB colony in Motijheel. They demanded justice for Zahidul.
The other deceased Samia’s friend Sumaiya Aktar told Prothom Alo that Samia phoned her and said that she was coming over to stay the night at her home in Khilgaon’s Tilpara. Samia lives in Shantibag.
Samia’s relatives refused to speak with newspersons.