Locals at Lalmatia Block E said some unidentified criminals shot him in the head at the point-blank range and left the scene at around 10:30pm. Police recovered the body shortly after midnight.

Identity of the youth in a white shirt and black pants could not be known as of filing this report at 1:15am.

At Motijheel, police recovered the housewife's body at around 1:30am from a first-floor room of Sylhet Boarding and sent it to Dhaka Medical College for autopsy.

The victim was identified as Parveen Begum, 25, wife of Abdus Salam.

Parveen's daughter four-year-old Sumi, who was found unhurt, was kept at Motijheel Police Station.

Abdus Salam rented a room on the first floor of their hotel and introduced Parveen and Sumi as his wife and daughter, hotel authorities said, adding that he mentioned Pashchim Para of Kachua upazila under Chandpur district as their home address.

Hearing a child's cry coming from the room at around 1:00am, a hotel employee went there but found the door locked from outside.

The employee told the receptionist of the matter and the hotel management informed the police.

Breaking open the room, police found Parveen's body lying on the bed, Sub-inspector (SI) Akhter-uz-Zaman of Motijheel Police Station said.

Parveen's neck was wrapped with a saree that was used to strangle her, the SI said.

He said Salam had used a false home address as Kachua police informed them that no such address exists.

Sumi told police that Salam and Parveen are her parents but she could not give out any further details, police said, adding that they are yet to trace out Abdus Salam who had been missing since the incident.