Two persons murdered in two districts

Two persons were murdered in separate incidents in Barishal and Khulna districts on Saturday.

BARISHAL: A group of six to seven men wearing burqas attacked and killed a farmer at a weekly market in Mehendiganj Upazila of the district on Saturday afternoon. The attackers later dumped his body into a nearby canal.

The incident occurred around 3:30 pm at Bhasanchar Bazar. The deceased was identified as Kabir Bepari, 55, a farmer from Namar Bahadurpur Village in Muladi Upazila. Kabir had gone to the market to buy household items.

According to two local witnesses, the attackers surrounded Kabir near the canal beside the market and attacked him with sharp weapons. Seriously injured, he was thrown into the canal. The attackers then fled.

Police from Kazirhat Police Station (PS) recovered Kabir’s body and sent it to the morgue at Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital in Barishal for an autopsy. The motive and identities of the attackers remain unclear.

Officer-in-Charge of the PS Siddiqur Rahman said, “We are investigating the incident seriously.” 

KHULNA: A youth was shot dead in the city on Saturday morning, allegedly by three men who fled on a motorcycle, police said.

Zalil Munsi, son of Dilu Munsi, of the city’s Kulibagan area, was attacked around 8:15 am in front of Ispahani Jute Press Colony on the Khulna-Jashore highway, police and residents said.

Zalil was walking past the Kulibagan Awami League office when the attackers approached and opened fire, striking him in the chest and back. Residents took him toward Khulna Medical College Hospital, but he died on the way.

A plainclothes police team nearby chased the suspects, police said. Asif Molla, 25, and an unidentified man escaped on the motorcycle, while Md Russell, 32, alias “Pichchi Russell,” allegedly fled into a nearby slum carrying a pistol. Russell had been arrested about 15 days earlier and released on bail several days later, police said. Police were conducting an operation to arrest those involved.