Police investigating possible link of a ‘third party’ in Italian citizen Tavella’s murder

Bangladesh Police are investigating if a “third party” was involved in the murder of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella in a bid to put the government in a tight spot.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 1 Oct 2015, 05:49 PM
Updated : 1 Oct 2015, 05:59 PM

“Detectives are mainly looking into issues related to his personal and professional life and any possible militant link to the murder,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said on Thursday.

“We are trying to verify the Islamic State’s claim for the killing of the Italian national. We are also investigating whether there was any involvement of a third party in the murder to put the government in a tight position,” he added.

Islam is heading the one-man committee police formed to look into the murder in Dhaka’s Gulshan-2 last Monday evening.

Unidentified assailants gunned down Tavella, 50, who worked at a Netherlands-based NGO, at the heart of the capital’s diplomatic zone.

The murder happened two days after Australian government raised security concerns for its citizens living in Bangladesh.

After its government warned of possible militant attack on ‘Australian interests’, Cricket Australia on Thursday decided to postpone its team’s tour of Bangladesh.

On Monday, before the murder, the US and the UK both had also warned their citizens, asking them to limit their movements in Bangladesh.

SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online jihadist threats, said the Islamic State had claimed responsibility for shooting Tavella dead.

But Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal brushed off the claim saying there was ‘no evidence’ to support it.

DB official Monirul Islam said they were yet to find any specific motive behind the murder. “But this is a challenge for us.”

“This murder was pre-planned and committed with a small firearm.”

“Police have collected some information. We also spoke to the witnesses. But none of them saw the assailants shooting the deceased. They only saw some youths running away,” Islam added.

Some ministers have been of late claiming that there were anti-Bangladesh plots afoot.

BNP leaders have said that the Awami League-led government has been ‘scaring the people using militancy as the bogeyman’ and now they are stuck in that ‘trap’.

Tavella was the project manager of Profitable Opportunities for Food Security, a programme of ICCO Cooperation. He lived alone in a Gulshan flat.

Witnesses said three men carried out the murder and fled in a motorcycle.

The Italian’s colleague Helen Vender Bik filed a case with Gulshan police on Tuesday accusing several unnamed assailants.

Police Headquarters formed the committee on the same day.

Two more supporting teams have also been formed to help that committee in the investigation.

Islam visited the crime scene on Thursday noon along with several other top police officials.