Killers of SP Babul’s wife will be arrested ‘very soon’, says Home Minister Kamal

The home minister hopes the killers of Superintendent of Police (SP) Babul Aktar’s wife will be caught ‘very soon’.

Mahmuda Aktar Mitu was killed to prevent police’s ‘successes’ in cracking the recent murder cases across the country, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said.

“The success rate in solving target killing cases is high. This incident has taken place to put an obstacle to that success,” he told reporters at SP Babul’s home at Chittagong’s OR Nizam Road on Sunday afternoon.

“I can strongly say that whatever the motive was of the killers, we will be able to arrest them very soon.”

Babul’s wife Mahmuda was hacked and then shot dead from point blank in front of their 6-year-old son near their home in the morning.

Babul Aktar, as the additional deputy commissioner with the Detective Branch in Chittagong, has been showered with praise for his key role in nabbing top militants and raids in the past two years, busting their hideouts in the port city.

The police officer was promoted to the rank of SP in April and transferred to Police Headquarters in Dhaka. But his wife, son and 4-year-old daughter lived in Chittagong. Babul joined office in the capital last Thursday.

Police suspect militants were involved in the killing of his wife, as her murder resembles the murders carried out by Islamist radicals throughout Bangladesh over the past two years.

After attending an event of the Border Guard Bangladesh in Bandarban in the morning, the home minister had said religious extremists were suspected to have a hand in Mahmuda’s murder.

He went to Babul’s home later in the day and told reporters, “So far, 37 incidents of target killings have taken place. We’ve arrested 144 people over 31 incidents and 49 of them have confessed.”

Though this was the first attack on any policeman’s family, Acting Inspector General of Police Javed Patwari said Mahmuda’s murder would not break the spirit of members of the force.

He told reporters, “Seventeen police officials have died while discharging their duties in 2013, while around 2,500 policemen have been injured. Of them, 300 have been maimed for life.”

“Police’s spirit is not brittle. We do our job accepting the occupational hazards.”

Patwari said police, CID, DB, PBI, counterterrorism unit and RAB were working jointly on the murder of SP Babul Aktar’s wife while looking into all possible motives behind it.

Earlier, a helicopter had carried SP Babul Aktar to Dampara Police Lines from Dhaka. From there, he directly went to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) where his wife’s body was kept.

A post-mortem on Mahmuda’s remains was carried at CMCH in the afternoon. A Namaz-e-Janaza was held at the Damparha Police Lines ground later.

Chittagong City Corporation Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin, Awami League’s Chittagong metropolitan unit President ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, top police and district administration officials attended it along with family and friends.

The family then started for Dhaka with Mahmuda’s body. On Monday, the remains will be taken to Jhenaidah where she will be buried at her in-laws.