OUR CORRESPONDENT, Bagerhat

A man was allegedly beaten to death in what locals said was an attack linked to a long-standing land dispute in Morrelganj upazila of Bagerhat on Saturday night.

The deceased is Kalam Khan, 48, of Dhepua Para village. His elder brother, Lutfar Khan, was critically injured and is undergoing treatment at Khulna Medical College Hospital, said Superintendent of Police Md Asaduzzaman.

Police and locals said the feud involved 15 to 20 bighas of ancestral land disputed between the victims and their cousin, Sohel Khan.

According to witnesses, Sohel and his accomplices intercepted the brothers around 9:00pm while they were returning from a nearby market.

They claimed that, branding Kalam and Lutfar as thieves, the attackers beat them with hammers and sticks before handing them over to police.

Following the incident, Rabbi Khan, Kalam’s son, filed a murder case naming 12 accused, including Sohel Khan. He alleged that the “thief” label was used as a pretext to settle the land feud.

“Whether he was a thief or not is a secondary matter. Nobody has the right to beat someone to death,” the SP said. Sohel has remained untraceable since the incident.