Police investigating ‘all angles’ in former PDB chairman’s murder

Police are investigating whether religious differences or feuds over business interests led to the murder of former Power Development Board (PDB) chairman Muhammad Khijir Khan.

Staff Correspondentand Kushtia Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 6 Oct 2015, 06:24 PM
Updated : 7 Oct 2015, 03:50 AM

His younger son Ashraful Islam filed a case against six to seven unidentified assailants on Tuesday, Badda Police Station Sub-Inspector Khan Nurul Islam told bdnews24.com.

Earlier in the day,his nephew BIDC Assistant Director Mahbub Alam received the body from the Dhaka Medical College Hospital after the post-mortem examination.

He said Khan would be buried at the family graveyard in Kushtia.

Khan, son of Pir Habib Rahmat Ullah of Daulatpur, in Kushtia, had several followers. He used to conduct special prayers at a sanctum in his house where he was killed.

The murder bore similarities to the killings of Islami Front leader Nurul Islam Farooqi in 2014 and self-styled Pir Lutfar Rahman earlier in 2013.

Police suspect militants had killed Farooqi and Rahman over religious differences, but have failed to make any arrests in connection with those earlier incidents.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Mostaq Ahmed told bdnews24.com police were examining several angles to Khan’s murder.

“Police are checking if his murder was linked to militancy, religious differences, personal enmity or feud over business,” he said.

Locals said he had no enmity with anyone in the neighbourhood, while relatives claimed he was not a supporter of any political party.

The local people said the assailants had entered his house on the pretexts of renting a warehouse on the ground floor and left after 15 minutes.

Their exact number could not be confirmed. While some claimed there were five to six, others said there about a dozen men. 

Khan’s nephew Alam said, quoting the victim’s wife, one of the assailants carried a gun while some others brandished machetes.

They tied her up as well as their daughter-in-law, and two grandsons, Alam said.

In Kushtia, locals said they knew Khan as a pious man. They suspected the involvement of militants in the crime.

His younger brother Ilias Khan told bdnews24.com that he had gone to his village home three days before Eid.

Ilias said his brother had spoken of his fears of a possible militant attack on him.

He also said “he had no feud with anyone, as he believed in Sufism”.

Local Union Parishad Chairman Nayeem Uddin Sentu said Khan was as much a patriot as he was pious.