Tipu murder: AL leader, 4 others on 5-day remand

A Dhaka Court on Sunday placed an Awami League leader and four others on five-days' remand over the murder of an Awami League politician and a female college student in Shahjahanpur.

The accused are Omar Faruk, 52, general secretary of No 10-ward unit of the Awami League, and Abu Saleh Shikder alias shooter Saleh, 38, Nasir Uddin alias Killer Nasir, 38, Morshedul Alam alias Kayla Palash, 51, and Arfanullah Damal, reports UNB.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Syed Mostafa Reza Nur passed the order when the investigation officer Yeasin Shikder, inspector of the Detective Branch of Police, produced them before the court with 10-day remand prayer.

On Friday night, the Awami League politician was among four people detained by the elite Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in connection with the Shahjahanpur shooting.

On the night of March 24, AL politician Zahidul Islam Tipu, who was on a microbus, and Samia Afrin Priti, a 22-year-old college student, who was returning home on a rickshaw, were killed in firing in front of Islami Bank Hospital.

Tipu was a former general secretary of the AL Motijheel committee and Priti was a student of Begum Badrunnesa Government College. Tipu’s driver was also injured in the firing.

They were all stuck in a traffic jam in the area when a biker wearing a helmet and a mask appeared from nowhere and fired at them. The next day, a case was filed against unidentified people over the double murder.

On March 27, police arrested Akash, 34, the prime accused in the double murder case from Bogura district. The next day, a Dhaka court placed Akash on a seven-day police remand for custodial interrogation.

On March 31, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) detectives arrested Arfanullah conducting a drive in the city’s Kamalapur area. He was placed on one-day remand on Friday.