The bullet-riddled body of Rezaur Rahman alias Zakir, 42, was found at Militarirpole area in Boalkhali upazila of the district yesterday morning.

Two BNP leaders and five others have been arrested following the killing.

The arrested BNP leaders are Shahabuddin and Shah Alam. The other arrestees are the Omar Gani MES College Student Union President, Wasim Uddin, Nazir Hossain Bhuiyan, Monir Hossain Bhuiyan, Abdul Halim and Maqsudur Rahman. Police were interrogating them.

A pistol loaded with five bullets, a cellphone set and Tk 700 were found with the businessman's body. His microbus was found several hundred yards away, sources said.

Zakir hailed from Brahmanbaria and was a resident of Garibullah Shah Housing Society under Khulshi thana in the city. He was involved in ship-breaking business.

Family sources said Zakir left home taking some relatives in his microbus and drove them to Chittagong railway station at about 6:30am Monday.

He stayed outside the station as his cousin Mizanur Rahman went inside to see the relatives off. But on return, Mizanur found that neither Zakir nor the microbus was there.

Zakir was supposed to return home by 1:00pm as he was scheduled to fly to Dhaka at 3:00pm and to Singapore from there, family members said.

As he remained missing and could not be reached by phone till 6:00pm, his cousin filed a general diary with the Khulshi Police Station.

Talking to newsmen at his residence yesterday, Zakir's father Bazlur Rahman alleged that locally influential BNP leader Shahabuddin killed his son following a dispute over land.