Two murdered in two districts

Two persons were murdered in separate incidents in Jashore and Bhola districts on Wednesday.

JASHORE: A 70-year-old BNP leader was hacked to death with a machete over a longstanding land dispute in front of the Boro Mosque in West Munsefpur in Munsefpur Village of Jashore Sadar Upazila on Wednesday afternoon.

The victim, Sheikh Abu Taleb, a former president and current member of the BNP’s Ward No. 4 unit in Kachua Union, was rushed to Jashore 250-bed General Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Police arrested the alleged attacker, Shafiar Sheikh, shortly after the incident in an operation led by Kotwali Police Station (PS) Officer-in-Charge (OC) Kabir Hossain.

Local sources said the two families had been embroiled in a land dispute for years, dating back to a property purchase by Taleb’s family about 15 years ago. The suspect allegedly attacked Taleb with a sharp machete before fleeing the scene.

Police said an investigation was underway and legal proceedings were in progress. Taleb’s body has been kept at the hospital morgue.

BHOLA: A dispute over harvesting betel nuts turned fatal in Bhola’s Lalmohon Upazila on Wednesday morning, leaving a 65-year-old man dead at the hands of his elder brother, police said.

Abdul Jalil, 65, died on the spot following an altercation with his brother, Md Shahid, 66, in the union’s Ward No. 9 over collecting betel nuts from their family orchard. According to police and locals, the argument escalated when Shahid punched Jalil and choked him to death.

Lalmohan PS officers rushed to the spot, arrested Shahid, and recovered the body, sending it to Bhola Sadar Hospital morgue for an autopsy. 

OC of the PS Md Nazrul Islam confirmed the arrest, stating that further legal proceedings are underway.