Four including 'mastermind' arrested over Zahidul murder
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested four persons including ‘mastermind’ Omar Faruque, 52, over the murder of Awami League leader Zahidul Islam Tipu.
Omar Faruque is a general secretary of ward no. 10 Awami League. The other arrested are Abu Saleh Shikdar alias Shooter Saleh, 38, Nasir Uddin alias Killer Nasir, 38, and Morshedul Alam alias Kailla Polash, 51.
RAB said after the killing, the accused persons exchanged text messages among themselves which read ‘It’s done'.
RAB’s legal and media wing director Khandaker Al Moyeen disclosed this information at a press briefing at the RAB media centre in Karwan Bazar on Saturday.
All four arrested persons were associates of Jubo League leader Milky who was shot dead in 2013, said the RAB.
The four accused were arrested from different parts of the city including Ramna and Mirpur on Friday.
Motijheel Awami League’s former general secretary Zahidul Islam alias Tipu, 58, was shot dead in Shajahanpur’s Amtola Mosque area in the capital city on 24 March night.
A college student named Samia Afnan, 22, was also killed in the shooting. She was on a rickshaw stuck in a traffic jam at the time. The driver of Zahidul’s microbus was also injured in the incident.
About the motive behind the killing, Khandaker Al Moyeen said the arrestees and other politicians and criminals had enmity with Zahidul over the control of Motijheel’s underworld over the years.
The RAB official said all four arrested accused persons were associates of murdered Jubo League leader Milky. They believed Zahidul was involved with Milky murder. After the murder of Milky in 2013, the arrested persons claimed Zahidul’s involvement in the murder and demonstrated, demanding his punishment. They got enraged as Zahidul was acquitted by the court.
About another motive behind the killing, the RAB said the gang of persons arrested yesterday, Friday, killed Rizvi Hasan alias ‘Bocha Babu’ in 2016. Babu was Zahidul’s close associate. Police submitted charge sheet against three—Omar Faruque, Abu Saleh Shikdar and Nasir Uddin--- in the case filed over Babu murder. The case is awaiting the verdict in the speedy trial tribunal.
The RAB official said Bocha Babu’s father Abul Kalam filed a case over the murder but Zahidul used to bear all the expenses of the case. Accused persons proposed to Zahidul to settle the case in exchange for Tk 5 million. He, however, refused to settle the case. The arrested persons at first considered killing Abul Kalam to impede the trial process but they later changed their mind and thought killing Zahidul would serve their cause better.
Khandaker Al Moyeen said the plan to kill Zahidul was made three to four months ago. Omar Faruque made a contract of Tk 1.5 million with Suman Shikdar Musa for killing Zahidul. Omar Faruque handed over Tk 900,000 to Musa who left the country for Dubai on 12 March.
Musa, one of the linchpins of notorious killer gang ‘Prakash-Bikash group’, was the main coordinator of the killing mission, the RAB briefing said.