Unidentified armed assailants on Saturday barged into the drawing room of a businessman at Rupnagar in the Mirpur area in the city and shot him dead.
He was identified as Zafrul Haque Moktar, 55, son of late Jahirul Haque, of Karupchar village in Shibchar, Madaripur district. The incident took place in a two-storey building (No. 87/88, Block T, Section 6) in the Rupnagar police station area. According to family members and the police, Zafrul was reading a newspaper in his drawing room after having breakfast. Around 12 pm, two persons riding on a motorbike stopped in front of his house. One of them, who wore a Punjabi, stepped into the house after pressing the calling bell. Within minutes, the assailant whipped out his gun and fired at Zafrul’s chest and left the spot, police said quoting local people.
Zafrul’s ailing wife, Sahida was sleeping in a room on the first floor and their sons, Rajib and Rabbi, were not at home when the incident took place.
Hearing the gunshots, local people rushed to the spot and found Zafrul lying in a pool of blood. Zafrul was rushed to Square Hospital and later shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) as his condition was critical. The doctors declared him dead around 2 pm.
Zafrul, chairperson of Home Sex Developer Business, was the second among six brothers and one sister. His elder son Rajib is the managing director of the firm. Mohammad Faisal, younger brother of the slain businessman, told The Independent, at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) morgue premises: “My brother had a long-standing enmity with former Union Parishad chairman of Shibchar over land dispute and mugging.”
“Two years ago, UP chairman Abdur Rab Sikder and his brothers Harun Sikder, Babul Sikder and Habib Sikder hatched a plot to kill my brother, but Allah then saved him,” Faisal said.
“We filed a case with Sibchar police station against them but they got bail. After getting bail, they threatened my brother to withdraw the case,” Faisal said. “I am sure they hired goons to kill my brother,” he added.
Mohammad Nuruzzaman, second officer of Rupnagar police station, told The Independent: “He might have been killed over land disputes and business matters. We are probing the incident.”
-With The Independent input