Police yesterday and on Saturday arrested three men, claiming that they were hitmen responsible for the murder of Syed Mizanur Rahman Himu, a former president of Jatiya Chhatra Samaj, a pro-Jatiya Party student organisation.

The body was recovered from an Eastern Housing plot in Rupnagar by police on January 17.

A pistol, 68 bullets and a microbus were also seized from the possession of the arrestees who admitted their involvement, Rupnagar Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) (investigation) Matlubur Rahman toldlhe Daily Star.

Shamim Khan, 29, Rafikul Islam, 45, and Omar Faruk, 52, were arrested in Khulna, Mirpur Beribadh and Bangsal.

Quoting the arrestees as saying, the OC said H imu last year got married to a girl, who had left her husband in the US and whose irate father had paid Tk 3 lakh for the hit.

The killers brought Himu near Dhaka University's Teacher-Student Centre on the night of January 16 from Wari and then took him to Mirpur Beribadh, he said.

On making him unconscious after several botched attempts using spiked drinks, they first tried to strangle him inside the microbus before shooting him in the head and dumping the body in the plot, added the OC.