Police yesterday recovered the charred body of a former Rangunia Jubo League leader from his house in the upazila.

The victim, Abul Hashem Bacha, 50, was a former assistant secretary of Jubo League's Rangunia upazila unit. He was home alone during the incident when his wife and daughter were visiting a relative, Imtiaz Uddin Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of Rangunia Police Station told The Daily Star.

The room where the body was found did not have any window and the victim's body and the bed were almost burnt to ashes, he said, adding that several other pieces of furniture in the room were burnt partially.

The body was sent to Chittagong Medical College for autopsy.

Purnochondro Mutsuddi, deputy assistant director of Chittagong Fire Service and Civil Defence (zone-3), told this correspondent that the fire service has recovered an LP (liquefied petroleum) gas cylinder unscathed from inside the victim's room. Other rooms of the house were found intact.

They did not find any leakage in the cylinder, nor did they find any sign of electrical short circuit in the room, Purnochondro added.

Victim's neighbour Murshed Talukdar, also a Jubo League member of Chittagong district (north), told this correspondent that he speculated the incident might be a planned murder as the door of the room was locked from outside when locals rushed to the house following the fire.