Helaluddin Helal, 45, member secretary of the JSP and Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority contractor, was supervising cleansing work in Box Culvert area of Kathalbagan when five youths went there and asked his employees to talk to their boss.

"The youths pressed us to talk to him and boss agreed," an employee said, adding he found Helal talking to the youths for few minutes.

As Helal started his motorbike later to go to the office of Sirajul Islam, Dhaka City Corporation commissioner of ward No. 50, the youths pulled out pistols and opened fire on him, said victim's cousin Meer Awalad Hossain.

Helal, also owner Al-Amin Furnishers in Panthapath, received bullets in the head and waist and collapsed in the street, he added.

Awlad rushed the victim to Dhaka Medical Colelge Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared him dead at 3:30pm.

Sirajul claimed extortionists, who had been demanding toll from Helal for running his furniture business for the last five months, murdered him.

Four youths opened fire on Lutfor Rahman, 50, security guard of Motijheel circle office of the Power and Water Development Board, at 9:00am, police said.

The gang asked the guard to come out. As he came out to the gate, they shot him in the head and chest and fled the area, police added.

Lutfor's colleagues rushed him to the DMCH where doctors pronounced him dead, hospital sources said.

Locals found the decomposed body of a woman, 30, from near Green Corner on Green Road in Dhanmondi at about 7:15am.

Finding black injury marks in her throat, morgue sources said she might have been strangled.