Ruling party MP Liton shot dead at his home by unknown assailants

Unidentified gunmen have stormed the house of a ruling party MP in Gaibandha and shot him from close range fatally wounding him.

MP Manjurul Islam Liton, 48, died in the hospital about an hour and half later.

“Three youths riding on a motorbike came and shot my husband,” the MP’s wife told the bdnews24.com.

He received three bullets – two on his left chest and one in left hand– when the assailant burst into his home at Shahbaz in Sarbananda around 6pm on Saturday, according to witnesses and police.

Sundarganj Police Station OC said the MP was rushed to the Rangpur Medical College Hospital in critical condition where the doctor failed to resuscitate him.

Hospital's surgery department chief Bimal Chandra Roy told reporters around 7:30pm that the Awami League lawmaker succumbed to his bullet wounds.

Liton was shot twice on the left chest and once on the left hand, he said.

The MP’s wife Syeda Khurshid Jahan Smriti told bdnews24.com that three unidentified youths, riding on a motorbike, came and entered the house after the Maghrib prayers and fled after shooting her husband.

An aide to the MP, ‘Jewel’ said there were five youths, and three opened fire on Liton indiscriminately.

Liton’s supporters had blocked Bamondanga-Noldanga protesting the shooting and killing of the MP.

Liton, a diploma engineer (marine) by training, was a director of Ananda Group of Industries. This was his first tenure as member of parliament.

The MP hit the headlines in 2015 after he had allegedly shot a 9-year-old schoolboy in his constituency. He was arrested in the case and later freed on bail.

The law-enforcing agencies are reported to have no clue about who carried out the murder.

Police have launched an operation to arrest the assailants and detained three people from Bamondanga Saturday night but their identities were not revealed.

Bamondanga of Sundarganj is known to be a Jamaat-e-Islami stronghold. Six persons, including three policemen, were killed in an attack on a police camp after Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death in 2013. His sentence was later commuted to jail until death by the higher court.

Central leaders of Liton's party Awami League have pointed finger at Jamaat. No reaction from Jamaat was available immediately.

Liton is the second incumbent MP killed by gunmen after the 2005 murder of Awami League's Shah AMS Kibria in Habiganj.

The MP’s body has been kept at Rangpur Medical College mortuary.

Hospital's Deputy Director Ajay Roy said the body will be handed over to the family after an autopsy on Sunday.

Liton's brother-in-law Syed Badiul Karemin Badal told bdnews24.com that the decision on the burial place will be taken on Sunday.

Shops and markets in Liton's constituency were shut after the shooting death in the evening.

A Jamaat activist's house on the College Road was torched around 7:45pm.

Gaibandha's Superintendent of Police Md Ashraful Islam said additional forces were deployed to avoid untoward incidents in the area.

President Md Abdul Hamid and Awami League chief Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have expressed their condolences over the death of Liton.

Hasina ordered the law-enforcing agencies to arrest the killers and urged the locals of Gaibandha to have patience.

In a message, she said a 'vested quarter' is out to create anarchy in Bangladesh through killings and terrorism when the country is treading the path of development. "It won't be allowed," she said. 

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader have also expressed condolence.

Condemning the murder, Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif told bdnews24.com: "I hope the law-enforcing agencies will find out the real killers and the motive behind the murder."

Asked who were on the list of suspects, "We won't say anything before the investigation ends. But initially Jamaat-Shibir is the suspect because he (Liton) was vocal against war criminals."