Police initiate case over murder of SP Babul’s wife Mahmuda in Chittagong

A case has been started over the murder of Superintendent of Police (SP) Babul Aktar’s wife in Chittagong.

Panchlaish Police Station’s Sub-Inspector Triratan Barua lodged it on Sunday night.

Several unknown persons have been accused in the case, Chittagong Metropolitan Police’s (CMP) Asif Mohiuddin told bdnews24.com.

SP Babul’s wife Mahmuda Aktar Mitu was hacked several times with a sharp weapon and then shot dead from point blank in front of their 6-year-old son.

It happened close to their home at the port city’s OR Nizam Road near GEC Intersection in the morning.

Babul, as an additional deputy commissioner with the CMP’s Detective Branch, has been commended for his key role in nabbing top militants and raids in the past two years, busting their hideouts in Chittagong.

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.

Since Babul was involved in counterterrorism operations, police suspect militants carried out Mahmuda’s murder, as it resembles the killings believed to be perpetrated by Islamic extremists throughout Bangladesh over the past two years.

Based on witness accounts and CCTV camera footage, police officials said three assailants murdered her and then made off in a motorcycle.

The technique – motorcycle-borne assailants wielding machetes and guns — bore a striking similarity to the murders of foreigners, Hindu and Christian priests in recent times, for which police blame Islamist radicals.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, too, has pointed the finger at religious extremists.

“Babul Aktar is an efficient officer and played a key role in apprehending militants. They killed his wife because they failed to get him,” he said.