Punish killers of two AL men

The people of Varara village in Pabna Sadar upazila yesterday brought out a procession in the district town demanding punishment of the culprits responsible for the killing of two Awami League (AL) men on Monday.

Lashkar Khan, 65, father of Sultan Hossain Khan, a newly joined local leader of Awami League (AL), and his fellow Abdul Malek Sheikh were shot dead during a clash between the supporters of Varara Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Abu Sayed and Sultan at Khan Para of Pabna Sadar upazila around 6:00pm on Monday following a previous rivalry over establishing supremacy in the area.

Ten others were injured in the clash.

The two bodies were taken to Pabna Medical College Hospital for post mortem yesterday morning.

Carrying the bodies from the hospital premises, people of Varara village brought out a procession that paraded the main streets of the district headquarters.

The agitators demanded exemplary punishment of the culprits.

“I was the candidate for UP chairman against Sayeed in last election. Since then he started enmity and made several attempts to kill me. When I along with my fellows gathered in the village on Monday evening, they launched an attack, leaving my father and Abdul Malek killed,” Sultan said.

We want exemplary punishment of Sayeed, Akkash and his men, Sultan said, giving three days' ultimatum to arrest the culprits.

Talking over phone, Varara UP Chairman Abu Sayeed claimed he was not involved with the incident.

“No case was filed in connection with the incident as of this [Tuesday] afternoon. A tense situation is prevailing in the area, and so, additional police force has been deployed. We are investigating the incident,” said Md Obaidul Haque, officer in charge of Pabna Sadar Police Station.

Sultan Hossain, a former leader of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, recently joined AL and decided to campaign in favour of the party nominee for the upcoming parliament election, which created grievance among the supporters of Abu Sayed, also organising secretary of Pabna Sadar upazila AL, party sources said.

Lawmaker from Pabna-5 constituency Golam Faruk Khandaker Prince, also secretary of district AL, said, “It is not a political clash, it happened due to their personal enmity.”

Faruk is the AL nominee in the constituency for the December 30 parliament elections.