Two suspects in the murder of publisher Shahjahan Bachchu have died in alleged shootouts with police in Munshiganj.
The incident of the gunfights took place at around 1:45 am at Hashara KC Road in Sreenagar Upazila on Thursday, said Additional Superintendent of Police Kazi Maksuda Lima.
The dead, Kaka alias Boma Shamim and Ekhlas, were members of the banned JMB militant group, said Md Nazrul Islam, a district intelligence officer of Munshiganj police.
“We had information that both of them were involved in the murder of blogger Bachchu.”
Abdur Rahman, the key suspect in the murder of Bachchu, died in a ‘shootout’ with the police in June.
On June 11, four unidentified assailants on two motorcycles gunned down Bachchu in the Upazila.
The 55-year-old former general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh’s Munshiganj district unit was a publisher of Bishaka Prokashoni. He was known as a free-thinking writer in his ancestral village Kakaldi.
Police filed a case against four unidentified persons over the murder. The police are said to have retrieved the information of the involvement of two more persons in the murder after interrogating Abdur Rahman.
The police had signalled two motor-cyclists to stop at around 2:00 am on Sreenagar Highway which they ignored and entered the nearby Chashara KC road on Thursday, said Lima.
“Police chased them and they opened fire forcing the police to retaliate. At one point, both of them were shot dead.”
Two sub-inspectors and a constable of police were also injured in the incident, according to the police, bdnews24 reported.
The law enforcement agencies seized 11 handmade bombs, a pistol and two machetes from the scene.
