Police nabs Arfan Ullah in Zahidul assassination
Six attended a meeting to plan Zahidul’s murder. Arfan Ullah was among them. Two others are under surveillance. A weapon was recovered.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has captured Arfan Ullah (Damal) in the murder case of Motijheel unit Awami League’s former general secretary Zahidul Islam aka Tipu. Following his statement, DMP Detective Branch (DB) has already recovered a revolver on Wednesday night.
A DB source said that shooter Masum, who was arrested earlier in connection to the Zahidul murder case, is being interrogated under police remand. According to his statement, DB has interrogated a few others. The investigators have learnt about two individuals named Mollah Shamim and Faruk Khan. They are accomplices of one of Bangladesh’s most wanted criminals Jafor Ahmed Manik. These two suspects are now under surveillance. DB nabbed Arfan Ullah as per the information they recovered.
DB and multiple local sources have confirmed that Arfan, a former Chhatra League leader, currently holds no position in the party. But he is known as a Jubo League leader in his locality. His meeting place was the Rupali Samaj Unnayan Sangstha (better known as Rupali Club), established behind Kamalapur Railway School and College. According to Arfan’s statement, the firearm was recovered from a shack in the slum right beside the club.
Arfan is the brother of Bangladesh Abritti Samannoy Parishad’s general secretary Ahkam Ullah. Ahkam Ullah told Prothom Alo on Thursday night that Arfan was the Dhaka City Chhatra League’s publicity secretary before going abroad in 2000. He returned to the country in 2013. He said, “He (Arfan) has brought shame to our family. We have no communication with him.” Ahkam Ullah claimed that he is a member of Awami League’s Central Cultural Affairs Sub-committee.
DB Motijheel unit’s sub-commissioner Rifat Mohammad Shamim told Prothom Alo on Thursday, “We have discovered involvement of a few top fugitives in Zahidul Islam’s murder. We have arrested one of them with a firearm. After forensic and ballistic examination of the recovered firearm, we can determine whether or not it was used in the murder.”
Another source related to the investigation said that the police have found evidence that the blueprint of Zahidul’s murder was sketched out at the Rupali Club. Six members of the groups of most wanted criminals Manik, Jisan and Bikash-Prokah were present in that meeting. The attendees included Sumon Sikdar aka Musa, Mollah Sharif, Faruk Khan and Arfan Ullah. The source refused to name the remaining two participants.
The source further said that in that meeting Musa gave Mollah Shamim and Faruk Khan the responsibility to hire a ‘shooter’. DB thinks that on the day of the murder, shooter Masum rode to the spot on Mollah Shamim’s motorcycle.
A DB source said there are five cases against Masum including a murder charge. He was hired to kill Zahidul for Tk 6,00,000. He was also given assurance that he will be shielded from the case. Musa even took Masum to his lawyer beforehand.
Zahidul was murdered while stuck at a traffic jam on a microbus at Shahjahanpur. College student Samia Afran also lost her life in the shooting.
Power struggle in Motijheel criminal ring, dispute with local political leaders and personal clash are assumed to be the reasons behind Zahidul’s murder.
*This report appeared in the online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ashfaq-Ul-Alam Niloy