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Most of them Nizam's men

Rab presents 8 'killers' of Ekram before media; AL's internal feud the reason

Staff Correspondent
Jihad Chowdhury, a close aide to Feni-2 Awami League lawmaker Nizam Hazari, along with Abidul Islam Abid and Sohel masterminded Tuesday's killing of Phulgazi upazila chairman Ekramul Haq.
Abid, a cousin of Nizam, shot Ekramul twice from close range, Rab said at a press briefing at its headquarters yesterday.
Four others - Kazi Shanan Mahmud, Jahidul Islam alias Saikat, Sajjadul Islam Patwari alias Sifat and Sunny - followed Abid and opened fire, said Habibur Rahman, Rab media wing director.
The briefing followed the arrest of eight suspects, including Abid, Shanan, Saikat and Sifat, over the last two days in Feni and the capital's Bashundhara. The eight were produced before the media.
Jihad, Sohel and Sunny are on the run.
According to the suspects' confession, Sohel, also known as "Ruti" Sohel, asked some of the attackers to set Ekram's car ablaze to ensure his death.
Jihad, who goes also by Jahid, supplied the firearms. The assailants returned those to him after the killing mission, added the Rab official.
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Intra-party feuds and rivalry over establishing supremacy in Phulgazi were the reasons behind the murder, Rab said.
The eight were taken to Feni yesterday.
The other arrestees are Chowdhury Md Nasir Uddin alias Anik, Shahjalal Uddin alias Shipon, Helal Uddin and Jahid Hossain. They are aged between 20 and 24 years.
Meanwhile, another suspect --Abdullahi! Mahmud Shiblu, councillor of ward-5 of Feni municipality -surrendered to the Feni police yesterday. He is in police custody now.
Shiblu and Jihad oversaw the entire mission from some 30 yards away, Rab said, quoting Shanan, one of the arrestees.
The Bilashi cinema hall area where the killing took place is controlled by Shiblu, once a key member of Jainal Hazari's so-called steering committee.
He started to get closer to Nizam Hazari after the AL took office in 2009 and subsequently became president of ward-5 AL.
Sohel used to work at a restaurant. He emerged as a notorious cadre under the wings of Shiblu, locals said.
Shiblu, however, said he was not involved in the killing.
Ekramul, who was also president of Phulgazi AL, was shot and then burned
alive in his car in broad daylight in Feni on Tuesday.
His driver and three other people in the car were injured, as the attackers stabbed them with sharp weapons and beat them up.
Ekram's rivalry with Jihad, joint general secretary of Phulgazi AL, intensified following the election of Anandapur union under Phulgazi upazila in 2011.
Jihad competed in the polls but lost to Harunur Rashid, whom Ekram backed.
Enraged, Jihad supported BNP-backed candidate Mahtab Uddin Chowdhury Minar, instead of supporting Ekram, in the upazila election early this year. Ekram, however, beat Mahtab.
Irked by Jihad's activities, Ekram had suspended him from the local AL committee. But his suspension was withdrawn in the face of pressure from Nizam Hazari, reports our Feni correspondent.
Abid told reporters that in a meeting on Monday evening, the day before the murder, they decided to just beat up Ekram and vandalise his car.
But around 11:30pm, Jihad asked him over the phone to meet him near Eidgah Maidan on Mizan road. There they held another meeting and planned to kill Ekram, thinking Ekram would kill him otherwise.
About 50 to 60 people in three groups took part in the attack, Rab said.
Jihad briefed some of the attackers, including Abid, about the plan after they started gathering in the Academy and its adjacent areas around 8:00am on Tuesday.
On the previous night, Abid called about 10 of his accomplices and asked them to come there. Sohel sent 10 to 12 people for the mission.
The two groups went to the cinema hall area around 10:30am, about one and a half hours after Jihad.
During primary interrogation, Saikat said he saw about 25 unknown people, equipped with sharp weapons.
According to Shanan, the "juniors" were assigned to set fire to the car. They collected Kerosene from nearby shops for the purpose.
He said Jihad also distributed sharp weapons and sticks among the attackers.
Abid, whose mother Anjuman Ara is general secretary of Feni Mahila AL, however, claimed he did not shoot Ekram but fired only into the air.
Another arrestee, Shipon, told journalists that he was asked by some of his "big brothers" to go to the Academy area for a showdown of Chhatra League.
Shipon claimed to be a Chhatra League activist.
Meanwhile, Feni police yesterday arrested another person, Alamgir Hossain, in connection with the case.