A machine operator of the Daily Ittefaq was slaughtered by unidentified assailants at the newspaper's office on RK Mission Road in the capital yesterday.

The body of Kamal Uddin, 45, who was a junior machine operator of the daily, was recovered from the ground floor of the office at 9:00am.

Kamal hailed from Khanpur village under Shibpur upazila in Narsingdi.

Kamal entered the office at around 7:00am, an hour before scheduled time, police said. The killers tied him up with rope and slaughtered him with a knife.

One of his colleagues told reporters that he along with three other colleagues were sleeping inside the office after their night duty when suddenly they woke up hearing the victim's groans. "As I opened my eyes, I saw Kamal lying in a pool of blood, slaughtered," the witness added.

Police recovered the bloodstained knife and the rope from the spot.

Police also picked up five from the spot for interrogation. Motive behind the killing could not be known immediately.

A feud over the ownership of the daily has been going on for more than a decade, and the owners have locked into clashes couple of times.

Kamal's wife Mahmuda Begum filed a case with Sutrapur Police Station in this connection.

BODY RECOVERED, INJURED DIES

In a separate incident, the body of an elderly man was recovered from Uttara Model Town yesterday morning.

Police recovered the body of an unidentified 70- year-old man from Road-1 in Sector-7 near the local mosque of Uttara at around 8:30am.

Police handed the body over to Anjuman-e-Mofidul Islam as an unclaimed body.

An unnatural death (UD) case was filed with the Uttar Police Station in this connection.

Meanwhile, the extortionist Mohammad Fazlu, who received severe burn injuries when traders at Karwan Bazar set fire to his body Wednesday, died yesterday noon while undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.