Tavella murder: BNP leader Quayum, 6 others indicted

Seven persons including BNP leader MA Quayum and his brother Abdul Matin have been indicted in a case filed for killing Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone last year.

Judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah of Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court fixed November 24 for starting the trial in the case.

Matin and four others, who are now in jail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after the judges read out the charges against them.

READ MORE: Italian national shot dead in Gulshan

Tavella, 50, was shot dead by armed criminals in Gulshan area on September 28 last year. He worked as the project manager of Profitable Opportunities for Food Security (Proofs), a project of Netherlands-based organisation ICCO Cooperation.

Three youths riding on a motorbike arrived in Road 90 of Gulshan-2 and two of them shot Tavella who was jogging on the road, police said.

According to a Reuters report, an online statement in the name of the hardline Islamist group Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack soon after the killing.

ALSO READ: Foreigner killings: Bangladesh investigators focus on 2 names