Ex-CID officer shot dead in his house

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a retired police official in Dhaka’s West Rampura on Thursday, taking his wife at gunpoint in his house.

DMP’s Additional Deputy Commissioner for Motijheel Zone Mehedi Hasan said several miscreants shot Fazlul Karim, 60, after entering his residence on the second floor of a five-story building at Wapda Road around 10am.

Karim owned the building and lived with his family there. His colleagues said he was an efficient police officer.

Police could not immediately say what the motive behind the murder was. But, his daughter suspects her relatives had committed murder over property matters.

Doctors at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) declared Karim dead after his driver and tenants of the building rushed him there, police outpost Inspector Md Mozammel Hoque told bdnews24.com.

Top police officials rushed to see him at DMCH as the news of the attack on Karim was out.

Special SP of CID Abdul Kahar Akhand told bdnews24.com that Karim investigated several sensational cases in the 1980s.

How it happened

Karim used to dwell on the second floor of his five-storey building with his family.

His brother-in-law Touhid Kashem Khan Prince said Karim’s wife, Swapna Karim, saw a youth with firearms in the staircase when she was leaving for her daughter’s home at Gulshan.

Swapna panicked and asked him who he was looking for. Then the youth forced her to get inside the house and called two of his associates up on the second floor.

Prince said they had locked Swapna in a room and fled after shooting Karim.

Apart from Swapna and Karim, a household worker and a minor boy were also in the house at the time of murder. The boy said he heard three gunshots, Prince said. But police said they found only a bullet injury in the head.

There is a garage and a house for the driver on a three-katha plot in front of the house. The driver ‘Liton’ lives in that house.

Saidur Rahman, a tenant at the building for the last 10 years, said: “I didn’t even hear any gunshots.”

“Suddenly in the morning, Liton came and started to knock at my door. And then he said someone has shot the landowner.”

He said he took Karim to the hospital with his neighbours later.

Mohammad Shakil, owner of a nearby confectionary store, said he was working at his shop when the murder took place but did not see any suspects.

Neighbours are also in the dark about the murderers.

Family feud?

Police are yet to make arrests in the killing, but his daughter Farjana Karim Badhon suspects their close relatives killed her father out of dispute over property.

A relative of the slain police official said the sons of the brother of Karim were not in the best of relationship with the family of Badhon.

Speaking to reporters at the hospital, she said her father was involved in a dispute with his brother’s family over a house at their ancestral home at Ramkrishnadi village in Munshiganj’s Sirajdikhan Upazila.

Asked about the motives behind her father’s murder, Badhon said, “Catch them. Then you will know the reason".

A nephew of Karim, Sajidur Rahman said Badhon’s family did not get along with the two sons of the brother of the slain police official- ‘Shanto’ and ‘Rubel’.

They are the sons of Bazlur Karim.

Asked about the reason behind the deterioration in relationship, Rahman said, “The boys are derailed and did not study at all. That’s why they had bad relationship with the uncles.”

He said Karim used to run an institution in his village named Ramkrishnadi Kaomi Madrasa.

“My uncle (Karim) appeared on a television talk-show some days ago. I have heard he was threatened several times after that.” He, however, could not elaborate.

After visiting the crime scene, Motijheel Police Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Asrafuzzaman said, “CID and Personnel of investigating agencies are working. It’s not possible to tell the motive.”

‘Efficient’ officer

Former colleagues of the slain police officer remembered his courage.

They said Karim revealed several sensational cases in his career.

Outlawed outfit Sarbahara in 1975 had raided Rajbari’s Pangsha Police Station, where Fazlul Karim was the Officer-in-Charge at the time, to loot arms.

Karim, with only a constable, fought the outlaws, while others fled the Police Station during the attack, according to one of his colleagues.

Karim’s colleague Khalequzzaman, now an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said recollecting the incident: “He kept fighting from inside the Police Station building. Sarbahara members fled the scene at around 5am leaving the bodies of three of their colleagues.”

He said Karim was awarded the Bangladesh Police Medal (BPM) for his bravery that night.

CID Special SP Akhand told bdnews24.com at the hospital that Karim was the investigation officer of many sensational cases in the 1980s.

Assistant Inspector Intejar Rahman, who was a colleague of Karim's, remembered what he had done while investing a robbery case in Dhaka’s Moghbazar in the 80s.

“He (Karim) asked the victim only two questions and was able to arrest the criminal, a woman, in two days,” he said.