Detectives have arrested five more suspects over the murder over the murder of an Awami League leader and a female college student in Shahjahanpur area of the capital on March 24 this year.
The arrestees are Md Shamim Hossain alias Mollah Shamim, 35, Md Taufiq Hasan Babu, 34, Md Sumon Hossain Sumon, 35, Ehtesham Uddin alias Chowdhuri Apu, 37, and Shariful Islam alias Hridoy, 27.
Police arrested them conducting separate drives in the capital and Jessore’s Benapole area on Monday, said Faruk Hossain, deputy commissioner (media and public relations) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
Besides, the law enforcers seized two foreign pistols, eight rounds of bullets, three magazines and a motorcycle from their possession.
Earlier on July 31, Detective Branch (DB) of police arrested two more suspects from the capital’s Motijheel area.
Police have so far arrested 27 people in this connection, the DMP officer added.
On the night of March 24, AL politician Zahidul Islam Tipu, who was on a microbus, and Samia Afrin Priti, a 22-year-old college student, who was returning home on a rickshaw, were killed in a firing in front of Islami Bank Hospital at Shahjahanpur.
Tipu was a former general secretary of the AL Motijheel committee and Priti was a student of Begum Badrunnesa Government College. Tipu’s driver was also injured in the firing.
They were all stuck in a traffic jam in the area when a biker wearing a helmet and a mask appeared from nowhere and fired at them.
The following day, a case was filed against unidentified people over the double murder.
On March 27, police arrested Akash, 34, the prime accused in the double murder case, from Bogura.
On March 31, DMP detectives arrested Arfanullah while conducting a drive in the city’s Kamalapur area.
On June 9, Sumon Shikdar Musa, the mastermind of Tipu murder, was brought back home from Oman.
According to the DB police, Musa went to Dubai on March 12 after hiring Shamim Molla to kill Tipu. Later, he fled to Oman.
Following interrogation, police came to know that Musa was the mastermind of the murder and Arfan, Shamim and Manik were involved in the killing.
Shamim, who directly took part in the murder, fled to Bhutan after the murder.