Police have arrested a man with suspected links to the killings of two people, including Awami League leader Jahidul Islam Tipu, in Dhaka’s Shahjahanpur, bdnews24.com reports.
The suspect, identified as Masum Mohammad Akash, is allegedly a contract killer who was hired to murder Tipu, Additional Commissioner Hafiz Akhter of detective police said on Sunday.
He was arrested in Bogura on Saturday with the help of local law enforcement, according to Hafiz.
"Akash fled to Joypurhat after the incident. He was planning to cross the border [into India] from there. But after failing to do so, he went to Bogura."
The 54-year-old Tipu was the former general secretary of the ruling party’s Motijheel unit. He was gunned down under a flyover outside Manama Bhaban in the Amtala area on Thursday.
A gunman wearing a helmet on a motorcycle pulled up next to Tipu’s microbus and opened fire.
Samia Afnan Prity, a student of Begum Badrunnesa Government Girls’ College, was also killed in the incident, while Tipu’s chauffeur 'Munna' was injured.
Tipu’s wife Farzana Islam Dolly, a local councillor of the city corporation, subsequently filed a case against unidentified suspects with the Shahjahanpur Police Station on Friday.
She alleged that Tipu had received a death threat over the phone some days ago.
Tipu was accused and arrested in a decade-long case over the 2013 murder of Juba League leader Reazul Haque Khan Milky.
