Police still grope for a clue to the murder of ruling Awami League lawmaker Md Manzurul Islam Liton when protests against the killing continued on Sunday. So far, 18 people have been picked up for interrogation, with police suspecting that extremist groups might have had a part to play in the homicide. Gunmen on Saturday evening killed the lawmaker at his village home at Sundarganj in Gaibandha. The murder sparked protests in the northern region of the country and three platoons of paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh were deployed at Sundarganj. Protestors blocked roads with logs and torched spent tyres and woods to vent their anger and frustration over the killing of the sitting lawmaker. The party activists enforced a daylong strike in the area on Sunday, blocking train communication on the Santahar-Lalmonithat route while traders kept their shops closed and hoisted black flags. Meanwhile, police now focus their attention on different extremist groups to find a clue. ‘Militancy is one of the major issues that we are focusing on,’ said assistant inspector general of police Md Moniruzzaman, who leads police headquarters-based Special Task Group. He told New Age that both intelligence and investigating agencies of police were engaged in the investigation, coordinated by the police headquarters. Gaibandha police additional superintendent Md Rabiul Islam said that they until Sunday evening picked up 18 people for interrogation. ‘Two to three people have involvement with Jamaat [e-Islami] politics. The rests are being interrogated about if they have any link to militancy,’ said Rabiul. A person close to the victim’s family told New Age that he left the lawmaker a few while before he was shot. ‘When I along with a motor mechanic was leaving the house, I noticed three unknown people waiting under a nearby tree and brother-in-law [Syed Bedarul Ahsan] of my sir was asking them what they wanted. They said they wanted to meet my sir,’ he said. Rapid Action Battalion’s intelligence director Abul Kalam Azad said that the killers were ‘highly’ efficient and suspected they had conducted reconnaissance before the ‘quick attack’. ‘The attackers chose the time when the lawmaker could really be vulnerable at his house,’ said Azad. His widow Khurshid Jahan Smirity, who took Liton to Rangpur Medical College Hospital, where he died, told New Age the attackers carried out the attack very quickly. She did not suspect any particular person for the gun attack but said her husband used to receive threat from ‘BNP and Jamaat.’ ‘But, I am not sure about the identities of the attackers,’ she said. At least three armed assailants shot dead the 48-year-old lawmaker for Gaibandha-1 inside his house. On Sunday morning, a three-member team, led by Rangpur Medical College’s forensic department head Narayan Chandra Saha, conducted the post-mortem examination of the body. Narayan Chandra told the reporters that they found that one of the pellets pierced through his right chest. Sundarganj police station inspector (investigation) Abu Haydar Md Ashrafuzzaman could not say which types of firearms were used in the attack. He, however, said investigators collected the pellet from the hospital and other material evidences from the crime scene. A murder case would be filed in this connection after his burial at his ancestral home, he informed. AL general secretary Obaidul Quader at a press conference in Dhaka on Sunday said ‘religious extremist forces’ might be behind the killing. They must give ‘high price’ for the killing, Quader threatened. In Rangpur, Awami League organising secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanok, however, singled out ‘Jamaat-Shibir-extremists’ for the attack and termed it a ‘planned murder’. Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in statement expressed deep concerns over the killing and criticised the law and order situation. He demanded that the government bring the assailants to book immediately. Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in a statement on Sunday condemned the arrest of more than 50 leaders and activists of the party in Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Joypurhat following the killing. ‘The arrest drive is going on in order to conceal the real murderers…’ said the statement. Home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan said, ‘Attack on a member of parliament seems to be a new chapter in recent terrorist attacks…But the motive behind the murder is not clear at the moment.’ He told reporters at the secretariat that the perpetrators would be brought to book soon and assured that the country’s law and order was now ‘very much normal.’ Asaduzzaman said all members of parliament were earlier asked to remain careful about their security. The first funeral prayer of the slain lawmaker was held on Rangpur Police Lines School and College ground on Sunday. His body was flown to Dhaka by a helicopter and was kept at a mortuary. Another funeral prayer would be held at South Plaza of Jatiya Sangsad on Monday morning. The lawmaker grabbed the headlines after shooting eight-year-old schoolboy Shahadat Hossain Sourav at Sundarganj on October 2, 2015 allegedly under the influence of alcohol, drawing huge nationwide criticism. He was arrested and secured bail in November 2015. Liton was elected lawmaker from Gaibandha-1 (Sundarganj) parliamentary constituency in the 2014 general elections, which was boycotted by all opposition parties.
Source: New Age
