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Murder in Feni

Prime suspect Jihad captured by cops

Staff Correspondent
Feni police yesterday arrested Jihad Chowdhury, the prime suspect in the gruesome murder of Phulgazi upazila chairman Ekramul Haq.
Jihad, also known as Jahid, is joint general secretary of Phulgazi Awami League and a close aide to Feni-2 AL lawmaker Nizam Hazari.
Police caught him around 6:00pm from the district's Baraipur area, said Shamsul Alam Sarkar, additional superintendent of Feni police.
His arrest came a day after Rab produced eight suspects in the murder before the media on Saturday.
During primary interrogation, the eight confessed to the elite force that Jihad along with Abidul
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Islam Abid and Sohel masterminded the murder.
Abid, a cousin of Nizam Hazari, shot Ekram twice from close range with a 7.62mm pistol provided by Jihad, Rab said.
Jihad, who had rivalry with Ekram, also gave four more pistols to Shanan, Saikat, Sifat and Sunny. They followed Abid and opened fire. After the murder, they returned the firearms to Jihad, Rab said quoting Abid.
Inspector Abul Kalam Azad, the investigation officer in the case, said illegal firearms were used in the killing.
Two other top suspects - Sohel and Sunny - are still on the run.
Ekram, who was also president of Phulgazi AL, was shot and then burned alive in his car in broad daylight in Feni on May 20.
His driver and three other people in the car were injured when the attackers stabbed them with sharp weapons and then beat them up.
According to the confession of the eight, Sohel, also known as “Ruti" Sohel, asked some of the attackers to set Ekram's car ablaze to ensure his death.
Abdullahil Mahmud Shiblu, councillor of ward-5 of Feni municipality, and Jihad oversaw the entire mission from some 30 yards away, Rab said, quoting an arrestee.
Shiblu surrendered to Feni police on Saturday.
Intra-party feuds and rivalry over establishing supremacy in Phulgazi were the reasons behind the murder, Rab said.
Ekram’s enmity with Jihad, joint general secretary of Phulgazi AL, intensified following the election of Anandapur union under Phulgazi upazilain2011.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, investigators yesterday got eight days to quiz each of nine suspects, including Abid, Shanan, Saikat, Sifat and Shiblu.
At the remand hearing, Shiblu protested his innocence and said he had surrendered as his name was mentioned by some of the detainees at the Rab press briefing on Saturday.
Of the eight other suspects, five claimed to be innocent, while Abid claimed Rab personnel tortured them during interrogation to get confessional statements.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Khairul Amin passed the remand order, after Feni police produced the nine before his court seeking 10 days' remand for each.
The court also ordered five days' remand for four people arrested earlier in connection with the killing.
Also yesterday, a team of Bangladesh Upazila Parishad Chairmen Association went to Feni and held a press conference, demanding transfer of the case to the Criminal Investigation Department of police.
In another development in Phulgazi, Ekram's followers set fire to the house of Alamgir Hossain, one of the arrested suspects in the case, yesterday afternoon.