Railway officer hacked to death in Ctg
Rail links snapped for 4 hours as 25,000 join protest
Our Correspondent, Chittagong
Armed criminals chopped to death a railway officer and freedom fighter at his residence here Saturday night.Shafiuddin Ahmed, 45, was murdered at around 11:00pm when he was watching TV at his Ambagan railway colony residence, the Khulshi police said. An officer of the railway engineering department and assistant general secretary of the Central Railway Sramik Dal, Shafi was alone at home at the time of occurrence. His wife, daughter and son were visiting a relative's house in the neighbourhood when the incident was taking place. Protesting the killing, some 25,000 railway officials, workers and party men spontaneously suspended their work and put up barricades on rail tracks at Pahartali and adjoining places yesterday morning. Railway communications with Chittagong remained snapped for four hours from 7:30am to 11:30am. Six persons including a son of a local Awami League (AL)-backed ward commissioner were arrested after a police raid on the same night. Sources said a band of 15 criminals first picked up Akhtaruddin Babu, local JCD general secretary and a close aide of Shafi, and forced him to call the victim. As soon as Shafi opened the door, the gang pushed him to the bathroom and started chopping and stabbing him indiscriminately. The criminals then dragged him out of the residence and shot him twice before leaving. They also beat up Babu with a rifle. Shafi, also a leader of the Chittagong unit of Jatiyatabadi Muktijodha Dal, was rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. Shafi's neighbours managed to catch one of the gangsters, Emon, allegedly a Jatiyatabadi Chatra Dal cadre, with a light gun and a knife while he was fleeing. The neighbours later turned him over to police. Masuda Begum, wife of Shafi, filed a case with the Khulshi Police Station accusing 12 people including local ward commissioner and AL leader Mohammad Hossain Hiron. Hiron was made prime accused in the case. Witnesses, relatives and police believe Shafiuddin was killed by Ambagan-based 'identified' criminals for his unflinching stance against the gang that they said is patronised by the AL, BNP and Freedom Party leaders.
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