Another held over lawmaker Litons murder
Third and last firearm recovered
Staff Reporter
Police yesterday arrested Anwarul Haq Rana, a suspected killer of lawmaker Manjurul Islam Liton, from Dhaka. During a press conference at the office of the Gaibandha superintendent of police, Gaibandha SP Ashraful Islam said Rana will soon be produced in court.
Police had earlier arrested three other suspectsMehedi, Shahin Mia and Hannanfor their connection with MP Litons murder, he further said.
The four killers carried out the murder as per the orders of a former Jatiya Party (JP) MP, Abdul Quader Khan. Quader had planned the murder to get rid of competition and become an MP again, said Ashraful Islam at the press conference. The Gaibandha SP disclosed that the police also recovered three firearms used in the killing mission.
A loaded pistol, used in the killing of the MP, was recovered from Quader Khans Sundarganj residence after police raided his house around 1am on Thursday.
A pistol loaded with six bullets and one blank magazine had been buried, Ashraf disclosed.
Quader Khan had earlier surrendered his licensed pistol and bullets to Sundarganj police station. However, he had deposited just 10 out of 40 bullets, without any satisfactory explanation about the remainder of the ammunition.
Ashraf said the police had raided Quader Khans house on Wednesday. The fire services department later conducted raids on three ponds of the former lawmaker, but found nothing. Based on the information Quader Khan provided during interrogation, police raided his house and recovered the firearm after digging the earth, he added.
Quader Khan, also a former JP vice-president, was picked up from his residence on February 21. The police said Quader Khan had planned the murder to get rid of competition and become an MP again.
Khan had been elected MP in the 2008 parliamentary elections as the candidate for the Awami League-led 20-Party Grand Alliance. He recently informed reporters that he would not run for by-polls in the constituency, which fell vacant after Liton was shot dead at his village home in Sundarganjs Masterpara on December 31 last year.
A mobile set was snatched by miscreants at Nayabazar of Dhopadanga area on Gaibandha-Sundarganj road in the early hours of December 1. Locals discovered the magazine at the spot and handed it over to the police. The bullets stored in the magazine matched a bullet found inside Litons body and the bullet shells seized from the crime scene. The incident prompted police to start looking for the snatchers, gradually helping uncover the motive for the murder. Finally, early on Tuesday morning, the police succeeded in detaining three people who confessed to being linked to the murder, leading to Quader Khans detention the same afternoon.
