MP Liton Murder: Another held, pistol, ammo recovered
Police have arrested one more person in connection with the murder of Awami League lawmaker Manzurul Islam Liton.
Anwarul Islam Rana was arrested in the capital on Wednesday night, Ashraful Islam, superintendent of police in Gaibandha, told journalists at his office yesterday.
Anwarul, of Gaibandha's Sundarganj upazila, works at a garment factory in Dhaka.
No other detail was revealed. He was produced before a magistrate yesterday for the recording of his statement under section 164, said police.
The law enforcers also claimed to have recovered the murder weapon, a pistol, buried under a mango tree on the courtyard of the alleged murder mastermind's home in Gaibandha's Chhaporhati union on Wednesday night.
Now on a 10-day remand, Col (retd) Abdul Kader Khan, a former Jatiya Party lawmaker from Gaibandha-1, was arrested in Bogra on February 1 for, what police say, planning the murder to fulfil his political ambition to be elected from the constituency again.
Other items recovered include six bullets, a magazine, Kader's passport and a copy of a bus ticket used to send the killers from Bogra to Dhaka, said police.
Police also claimed to have recovered a licensed pistol and 10 bullets and that they were conducting raids on suspicion that Kader had more illegal firearms.
They said they were looking for an office secretary of the upazila unit AL named Chandan Sarkar.
Data from Kader's phone suggest that Chandan had a good relation with him and that Chandan had informed the killers of Liton's location and of the circumstances being favourable for the attack, said police.
Liton was killed after unknown assailants opened fire on him inside his home in Sundarganj upazila on December 31 last year.
Later, police arrested three persons who allegedly took part in the murder. They are Kader's driver Abdul Hannan and caretakers of his house Shaheen Mia and Mehedi Hasan.
The arrestees gave confessional statements before a court and Kader was arrested on the basis of those.
Initially, police said to have pumped dry three ponds on the premises of Kader's residence and found nothing. They said Kader, while on remand, told them about the pistol which was found under the tree.
The gun's condition indicates that it had been buried for around two months, said the SP.
Police said Kader trained the killers at the residence on how to carry out the killing and use a gun and that the killers went to Liton's home from that residence.
There were initially six bullets in the magazine, said police. Kader had earlier accidentally fired one shot and police recovered the bullet from a wall. The remaining five bullets were used to kill Liton, they added.
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