Juba League leader killed in gunfight over cable TV business in Chattogram

A gunbattle over a turf war to control the cable TV business has left a local Juba League leader dead and a woman and her 11-month old grandson injured in Chattogram.

Faridul Islam, 40, a former organising secretary of the Juba League’s Chawkbazar ward unit, suffered bullet injuries near Kalam Colony on DC Road in the port city around 3pm on Friday.

Doctors at Chittagong Medical College Hospital declared him dead when the locals took him there, Assistant Sub-Inspector Alauddin Talukder at the local police camp told bdnews24.com.

He said Faridul was hit by a bullet in the lower chest.

Faridul’s daughter ‘Zara’ told bdnews24.com at the hospital his father came home for lunch in the afternoon but rushed out after getting a phone call.

“We received another call shortly afterwards. Someone called us to the hospital,” she said.

The injured are Nurjahan Begum and her grandson Belal Hossain.

Nurjahan was hit by a bullet in the abdomen while another bullet narrowly missed Belal’s head but cut through the skin, his father Md Sumon told bdnews24.com.  

Witnesses said tension was running high in the area when the two sides, one led by Emdadul Haque Badsha and the other by MA Musa, came face-to-face in the morning.

The members of the two groups, wearing helmets, started firing shots at each other around 2:30pm, witnesses said.

Faridul, a friend of Badsha, was hit by a bullet when he tried to stop their rivals from entering Kamal Colony, they said.

Chawkbazar Police Station OC Nurul Huda told bdnews24.com the two groups fought for control of cable TV business in the area.