Unknown assailants have slaughtered six persons at a house in Dhaka’s Gopibagh for reasons police say are yet unknown.
Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ilias Sharif confirmed the recovery of six bodies on Saturday evening from the first floor of the four-storied house no. 64/6 at Ramkrishna Mission Road.
bdnews24.com Correspondents Kamal Hossain Talukder, Shaikh Abdullah and Golam Mujtaba Dhrubo were at the scene to bring details.
Residents of the adjacent buildings said they had been hearing screams since 6:30pm before they approached the building.
Police were having trouble to control crowd as hundreds of people have thronged the locality after the news of the horrific killings spread.
Ilias Sharif said they also took several people into custody for questioning.
Resident of an adjacent building, Mofiz Uddin, said hearing screams around evening he rushed to the house.
“As I opened the apartment’s door, I found two bodies lying on the floor. One appeared to be that of an elderly person while the other of a younger,” he told bdnews24.com.
He also saw four more bodies inside the apartment.
The elderly man has been identified as Lutfur Rahman Faruk, 60, who used to identify himself as a ‘pir’ (saint), Wari zone’s Assistant Commissioner of police Shahed Mia said.
Mofiz Uddin said the family had rented the flat eight months ago.
The other victims are Faruk’s son Monir Hossain, the house’s caretaker ‘Monju’, Faruk’s followers ‘Shaheen’, ‘Rasel’, and Mojibur Rahman.
Monir worked at the Sadarghat branch of City Bank, his relatives said.
Wari zone’s Assistant Police Commissioner Mehedi Hasan said they had recovered two bodies form one room and four from another.
He said the killers had tied the hands and legs of the victims and sealed their mouths with tapes.
Members of Faruk’s family were locked in another room in a similar fashion.
Police suspect the assailants had entered the house in the guise of Faruk’s followers.
It is not yet clear whether the killings were part of a robbery as members of Faruk’s family could not immediately confirm if any valuables were missing, Mehedi Hasan said.
Meanwhile, top police officials visited the house while CID was collecting evidence from the crime scenes.
Faruk’s wife said that he had asked her to prepare food for 10 additional persons in the evening, RAB Additional Director General (Operation) Col Ziaul Ahsan said.
Ten-twelve people came to the house. They had snacks and said prayers. After that, they told Faruk, ‘we have come to kill you’, Ahsan quoted Faruk’s wife as saying.
Then the assailants locked up seven people including Faruk’s wife, his son’s wife and two children in the adjacent room.
The building’s owner ‘Shirin’ said her husband Waliul Islam is a Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Education. They had employed one ‘Saiful’ as a caretaker of the building.
However, Saiful was not at home at the time of the killings, she added.
Source: bdnews24
