Former Jatiya Party lawmaker from Gaibandha-1 constituency Abdul Quader Khan, also a retired colonel, was the prime mastermind of the Awami League Lawmaker Manjurul Islam Liton murder said Rangpur police range deputy inspector general (DIG) Khandakar Golam Faruque.

The DIG during a press conference at Gaibandha district police superintendent’s office at about 10:30am on Wednesday said Hannan, Mehedi, Shahin, and Rana, were directly involved in the killing.

Khandakar Golam Faruque said police resolved the murder mystery following a mugging incident and found out that former colonel Quader Khan is the main plotter of the killing. 

The DIG said Quader Khan, a retired physician of Bangladesh Army, hired the murderers to kill the lawmaker. His next target was Jatiya Party aspirant of Sundharganj constituency Shamim Haider Patwari.

It has been known that lawmaker Liton was killed purposefully ahead of the by-election to Sundarganj constituency.

Among the murderers, Abdul Hanna, driver of Quader Khan’s personal vehicle, Shahin, Quader’s nephew, and Mehedi, his personal assistant, were arrested by police. They were kept in jail.

Another accused, Rana, is under police observation. Police will nab him anytime, said the DIG.

Dr Abdul Quader Khan is a resident of the village of Chhaparhati in Sundarganj upazila. He along with his family used to live at the top floor of a four-storey building in Bogra city. 

On 21 February, a team of Detective Branch (DB) in Gaibandha with the help of Bogra police arrested Abdul Quader around 5:00pm on suspicion that he might have been involved in the killing of lawmaker Liton.

The arrest was made five days after police cordoned off his house.

Members of law enforcement agencies, including plainclothes Special Branch (SB) men, took position in front of his house-cum-clinic on 16 February.

Earlier on 15 February, police arrested former lawmaker’s driver Hannan and personal assistant Rashedul Islam Mehedi from Kadamtali of Gaibandha.

Miscreants shot ruling Awami League lawmaker from Gaibandha-1 (Sundarganj) constituency Manjurul Islam Liton to dead at Bamandanga village in Sundarganj upazila on 31 December 2016.

Doctors declared the MP dead at about 7:30pm, 15 minutes after he was rushed at the Rangpur Medical College Hospital (RMCH) with two bullet wounds in the chest from his home at Sundarganj.

Gaibandha police said two unidentified men shot Liton from a close proximity at his village home at Masterpara near Bamondanga railway station as they appeared at the scene mounting on a motorbike at about 6:00pm, saying they wanted to meet him.