Police claim to find more leads on murders of LGBT activist Xulhaz, friend Tonoy

Police have claimed to have obtained ‘more leads’ on Monday’s murders of USAID official Xulhaz Mannan and his theatre activist friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy in Dhaka.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 27 April 2016, 11:55 AM
Updated : 27 April 2016, 02:38 PM

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia told the media on Wednesday that they were looking into some other aspects apart from the suspected militants’ involvement, but did not spell what they were.

“They (the victims) were involved with an organisation. We are not ruling out a dispute over financial matters or the involvement of extremists.

“The investigation is now at its initial stage, but we can come to a conclusion within a few days. Everyone is a suspect. All the dimensions are being considered for the probe,” he said while speaking at his office.

Xulhaz, an editor of Bangladesh’s first LGBT magazine, was killed by machete-wielding assailants, along with Tonoy, inside his apartment at Dhaka’s Kalabagan.

Forensic experts said the killers were trained to target specific areas of the body to cause immediate death— the same way secular bloggers and online activists, including Avijit Roy, were killed in the recent past in Bangladesh.

Witnesses said the men, who barged into Xulhaz’s apartment, fled after firing from their guns and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great).

Referring to that, reporters asked the Dhaka City police chief why they were suspecting a financial dispute.

“I cannot disclose details for the sake of the investigation. We have found some more leads. The killers might have done that to mislead investigators,” replied DMP Commissioner Mia.

Touching on details of the killings of Xulhaz and Tonoy, he said around 5pm, a man with two packages produced an ID card of a courier service at the reception of the building.

“He told the people at the reception that he had spoken with Xulhaz Mannan. Xulhaz then came downstairs and took the man to his apartment.

Asaduzzaman Mia

“All on a sudden, four men barged in through the building’s main entrance. The three security guards tried to stop them when they hacked two and locked the other in a room adjacent to the main entrance,” said Mia.

According to him, the attackers finished their job in “exactly five minutes.”

Mia claimed police reached the spot within seven minutes.

“Two police officers tried to stop them when one of them was hacked with machetes.

“But police managed to snatch a bag belonging to one of the perpetrators. A pistol, a mobile phone and some documents written in Arabic were found in it. We have also obtained CCTV footage of the attackers fleeing, which are being looking into,” he said.

The DMP chief, however, declined to describe police not being able to arrest any of the attackers as a failure.

“Police fired but missed them, because the road was crowded as people were coming out from the mosque after the Asr prayers. They managed to melt in the crowd. I will not say it was a failure, but it was unfortunate.”

The DMP chief said if the people would have helped when the police officer grabbed one of the attackers, then he might have been nabbed.

Police have taken the matter as a ‘challenge’, said Commissioner Mia adding that their investigators were capable enough to find the killers.

“We will crack this case, just like we had done in the previous cases. There’s nothing to be panicked.”