College student killed in Rajshahi

A college student was found murdered at dawn in Rajshahi city yesterday, while he was on his way to board a Dinajpur-bound train to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with his family.

The victim -- Fardin Isna Asharia Rabby, 18, son of Mozaffar Sarker of Parbatipur -- was a second-year HSC student at Rajshahi Government City College, said Nibaron Chandra Burman, officer-in-charge of Boalia Police Station.

Informed by locals, police recovered his body in a pool of blood from the roadside in Hatemkhan area at 6am, he said.

Police said they were yet to find an eyewitness, although the crime scene is within 100 metres of a local mosque, and the murder happened around the time of Fajr prayers.  

“Analysing the crime scene, we think it was a planned murder,” the police official said.

The victim’s body bore a single stab injury on the head. His bag, watch, cellphone and wallet were found intact on the scene.

His blood-stained fingerprints were found on a nearby electric pole -- suggesting that he fought back, said the police official.

Rabby went out of his room at a private dormitory in Hatemkhana at around 5am to catch the intercity train Titumir Express -- scheduled to start for Dinajpur at 6:20am.

He was supposed to travel with his friend and classmate Ripon Mohonto.

“I was waiting for him at the station and called him repeatedly. He answered at 5:20am and said he was walking to the station. I couldn’t reach him since,” Ripon said.

At 6:20am when Ripon boarded the train, police called him from Rabby’s phone and asked him to come to the police station. Police interrogated Ripon and another classmate, Badsha Sekandor.

Rabby’s sister Mansura Parveen filed a murder case with Boalia Police Station, accusing unnamed miscreants.