Feud over religious views, property in probe focus
Law enforcers are investigating whether differences of religious views or feud over property led to the killing of former PDB chairman Khijir Khan, also known as a pir.
Mostak Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Gulshan division of police, said police are yet to find any clue to the murder however.
Khijir was murdered by unidentified assailants in his Maddhya Badda house in the capital on Monday. A case was filed in this connection accusing six to seven unnamed assailants but no one has been arrested so far.
Residents living in the area expressed their surprise that the killers managed to flee even though security in surrounding areas was tightened after the murder of Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in Gulshan on September 28.
They said there were at least three police check points around the victim's house, which is close to the Gulshan lake.
Khijir's nephew Mahbube Alam said, “I don't understand how the killers left the area amid such a tight security.”
Alam said the killers took some gold ornaments, a tablet computer, several expensive mobile phones and some cash from the house.
He added that the victim's body was taken to his hometown in Kushtia for burial.
Khijir's disciples said he ran 22 Khanka Sharifs (places of worship) in different districts. One such Khanka was housed in his six-storey building. They said his father was also a pir.
Khijir used to hold weekly jikir and discussions on the holy Quran and Hadith on Thursdays.
The way Khijir was murdered is similar to the ways four other pirs in the recent past were killed. Islamic extremists were largely blamed for these incidents.
The Daily Star found that five pirs along with six of their family members and assistants were murdered since December 2013.
Earlier on September 7, assailants shot to death a pir in his sleep in Vorotpur of Pabna.
On September 5, unknown assailants slit the throat of a pir named Rahmat Ullah (60) along with an attendant inside his shrine in Chittagong. He was known as 'Lyangta Fakir' for remaining naked most of the time.
On August 29, 2014, the chief imam of the Supreme Court mosque Shiekh Nurul Islam Faruqi was slaughtered at his Rajabazar house by 10 unidentified assailants.
On December 22, 2013, assailants slit the throats of six people, including a pir and his son at his Gopibag house in Dhaka.
Before these incidents, there were two bomb attacks at Hajrat Shahjalal Shrine in Sylhet in May 2004 that left five killed and scores injured.
Family members of all these victims, in most of the cases, said that those opposing the victims' religious views were connected with these murders.
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