Police yet to make much progress in investigation

Police have been unable to make much progress in the investigation into the killing of journalist Mashiur Rahman Utsho in Rangpur, even three days after the murder.

Utsho's colleagues at the local Bangla daily Juger Alo suspect he might have been killed because he wrote a series of reports against drug peddling, but the cops remained tight lipped about the motive behind the gruesome incident. He used to write as Utsho Rahman.

Cops recovered a deed, suspected to have been handed over to him by an acquaintance as a source of news, from the place where his body was found, but they are yet to find the journalist's motorbike, camera and cellphone.

Rangpur journalists yesterday gave a 24-hour ultimatum to the law enforcers to arrest the culprits, otherwise they said they would lay siege to the office of the superintendent of police (SP) on Monday.

Journalists of Rangpur Press Club, Rangpur City Press Club, Rangpur Reporters' Club and Rangpur Photo Journalists' Association, jointly formed a human chain in front of Rangpur Press Club for an hour from around 11:00am. They also held a rally at the same venue.

Several hundred journalists of print and electronic media, Utsho's family members and representatives of different professional organisations participated in protest programmes.

Unidentified assailants hacked Utsho, 30, to death early Thursday. His body was found tied to a roadside tree in the Dharmadas area on the Dhaka-Rangpur highway the next morning.

Utsho's mother Nurjahan Begum filed a murder case accusing unnamed people with Kotwali Police Station on Thursday night. The case was handed over to detective branch, said police.

Utsho's colleagues said he left his office around 9:00pm on Wednesday, saying he would go to a relative's house. Locals in the Darshana area found his body and informed police.

Quoting locals at Boiriganj under Mithapukur upazila, Nazrul Mridha, assistant news editor of Juger Alo, said Utsho was seen in the area around 1:30am on Thursday.

According to the deed, Nazrul Mridha said one Matin, alias Moti, of Boiriganj got Tk four lakh from Roksana Begum of the same area in 2014.

Abdul Quader Jilani, officer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station, said they have made some progress in the investigation but declined to say more.

Asked about the deed, Abdur Razzak, superintendent of police (SP) in Rangpur, refused to say anything in this regard. “We are trying our best to arrest the culprits,” he said.