Criminals gun down city BNP leader

A BNP ward leader was shot dead by unidentified criminals early yesterday in the city's Mohammadpur area.
Family members of deceased Manzur Morshed Shipu, BNP joint convenor of ward-44, said members of law enforcement agencies might have killed Shipu.
Shipu was the owner of a beauty parlour 'Rup' at Adabar, they added.
Mohammadpur police, however, denied the allegation and said they did not know who had killed him.
Quoting a security guard Alamgir Morshed Tutul, elder brother of Shipu, said five to six people whisked Shipu on a white-coloured microbus from the parking of his residence soon after he got out of his private car at around 11:15pm on Thursday.
At around 4:00am yesterday they came to know that a person was shot dead on the Tajmahal Road. They rushed there and found Shipu's body, he said.
Earlier they went to the nearby police stations and Rab offices to know about his whereabouts. As they failed to trace him his wife Hasina Morshed filed a general diary with the Mohammadpur Police Station early Friday.
Tazmahal Road security guard Titon said hearing a gunshot he rushed to the spot and saw some people speeding away on a microbus leaving a man shot dead.
Dhaka Medical College morgue sources said Shipu was tortured before he was shot in his head.
Shipu's close friend Syed Barkat Hossain said Shipu had declared he would be commissioner candidate of the ward-44 in the upcoming city corporation election.
BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain and other senior BNP leaders visited Dhaka Medical College to have a glimpse of him where they condemned the grisly murder.
They also demanded the arrest of the killers and their punishment.