Feni upazila chairman shot, burnt alive
Feni upazila chairman shot, burnt alive
Dhaka-Chittagong highway blocked
The Fulgazi upazila chairman of Feni was shot and burnt to death in his car by miscreants in the district town this morning.
Ekramul Haque, 45, was also the president of Awami League upazila unit, reports our Feni correspondent.
Three of his associates and driver received burn injuries when the criminals set Ekramul’s car on fire near Bilashi cinema hall in Academy area around 10:50am.
Vehicular movement on Dhaka-Chittagong highway remains suspended since 4:00pm as locals including supporters of AL and its associate bodies put barricade at Mohipal in Sadar upazila protesting the killing.
Later the blockade was withdrawn aroud till 4:00pm.
Mohibullah Farhad, one of the injured, said armed miscreants coming on an easy bike intercepted the car, sprayed bullets and exploded handmade bombs targeting the vehicle.
Later, they poured petrol and set the car afire, he said.
Ekramul’s associates --Moin Uddin Shambhu, 60, former chairman of Fulgazi Sadar union parishad; and Farhad, 32, editor of a local weekly magazine Feni Samachar; and AL Abul Hossain, 45, -- and driver of the car Abdullah Al Mamun, 30, managed to get down from the burning car.
But Ekramul could not move as he was hit by a bullet in his chest, Farhad said.
On information, firefighters rushed the spot and doused the blaze.
They recovered the charred body of Ekramul from inside the car, which was provided to him by the government after he was elected upazila chairman.
The chairman along with the trio was going to Fulgazi upazila from his residence in the town.
The injured were whisked off to Feni Sadar Hospital from where Mamun and Abul Hossain have been shifted to Dhaka for better treatment.
Contacted, Poritosh Ghosh, superintendent of police in Feni, confirmed the killing to The Daily Star.
Abdul Rahman, president of district AL, said rivalry over upazila election and personal enmity might be the reason behind the killings.
In protest against the killing, AL activists vandalised the house of Mahtabuddin Chowdury, a local BNP leader who was a chairman candidate in the recently held Fulgazi upazila election.
They also set fire to furniture of his house at Anandapur village in the upazila.
PM ORDERS ARREST OF KILLERS
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the law enforcement agencies to immediately arrest the killers of Ekramul Haque.
She said Ekram was a young popular AL leader, who wanted to modernise Fulgazi upazila.
Anti-liberation elements and evil forces, who want to destroy the organisational strength of the ruling party through killing and terrorism, might have link with the brutal killing, she said.
Meanwhile, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the government was trying to shift the blame of killing the Fulgazi upazila chairman on BNP men.
“The death of Ekramul Haque was an outcome of the party’s internal feud,” Fakhrul said in a statement this evening.