Ban on three riders on a motorcycle, says Home Minister Kamal

Police will ensure that three persons are not riding a motorcycle together, says Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.

The announcement on Monday came a day after three men, riding a motorcycle, stabbed and shot dead a senior police officer’s wife in Chittagong.

“Three riders on a motorcycle will be not allowed anymore,” he told the media at the Secretariat.

Mahmuda Aktar, who was married to Superintendent Babul Aktar, was murdered in a suspected militant attack just a few hundred yards from her home in the port city.

Chittagong metro police claimed finding the motorcycle the assailants used late on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters, Kamal said that the killing was aimed to dent the confidence of the police officers. “We are looking into the matter of security for their families.” 

Babul Aktar, as additional deputy commissioner with the DB in Chittagong, had played a key role in nabbing top militants and led raids in the past two years, busting their hideouts in the southern coastal district.

The police officer was promoted in April and transferred to Police Headquarters in Dhaka.

But his wife, son and 4-year-old daughter lived in Chittagong. Babul reported for duty in the capital last Thursday.

The pattern of the killing in the port city — assailants on a motorcycle armed with sharp weapons and guns — resembles the murders in the last two years, for which police have blamed Islamist radicals.

Chittagong metro police Commissioner Iqbal Bahar said on Monday that their investigation was looking at the link of militants to the murder.

“But we are looking into other aspects as well,” he told bdnews24.com.

Police have started a case on Sunday, which accuses unidentified men for the killing.

“The Detective Branch will investigate the matter with help of other police departments,” said Commissioner Bahar.

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