High ups of a law enforcement agency told the Dhaka Tribune that several possible motives had taken shape in the first few days of investigation.
The law enforcers said no equation of beneficiary is getting clear shape to be reflected as motive.
One official said law enforcement had not yet ruled out the involvement of family members in the murder. On the other hand they were certain the assassins were professionals, from the clean job they had done.
The victim had a long rivalry with local Jamaat-e-Islami, which enjoys strong support in the region. He once foiled a visit of Golam Azam to the area. After Jamaat leader Sayedee verdict in 2014, when the murder of four policemen took place, he was the one to file a case.
Local law enforcement said some 135 Jamaat leaders including 2001 local lawmaker Abdul Aziz alias Ghora Mara Aziz were accused.
This could have led to the murder, the official said.
Financial motives also seemed very strong at this point, the official said, but refused to elaborate on the matter.
According to several officials involved, although the investigation began with five aspects, the financial, family dispute and Jamaat aspects appeared the most plausible at this point.
“One could say with some certainty that without family involvement, the murder would not have been so well-planned,” a senior law enforcement official said.
Liton was a popular leader and at least two dozen people would be found at his door whenever he returned from the capital. But no one was present on December 31, the day of the murder. Even the caretakers of the house busy elsewhere.
Caretakers Soumendro and Yusuf Ali have said in their testimony they were busy and did not see anything before hearing the gunshots.
Meanwhile, a source said Liton’s brother-in-law Bedarul Islam alias Betar was being kept under surveillance until he could be cleared.
Liton’s family members returned to Dhaka on Tuesday.
One source said a business partner of Liton named Sagir Ali Bihari, a local BNP leader and a follower of former Jamaat MP Abdul Aziz, was also being looked into.
Scene of crime a puzzleThe MP came to the village on December 14 and was scheduled to leave on New Year’s Day by boarding a plane from Sayedpur with his family.
Investigators said it was surprising that an MP had a complete absence of local followers and activists at his home during this short visit from Dhaka.
They said it seemed as though someone had intentionally created the scenario that would favour the attackers.
“No party activists were there, the caretakers were busy and his wife and Betar came out of the room when the two assailants entered. Even when he was shot, the driver Forkan Akon instead of taking the injured MP to the hospital ran after the attackers with the car,” one investigator said.
The injured MP was conscious for not less than 45 minutes after the attack but family testimony says he did not say anything about the attackers.
The officials said they were surprised that Liton’s wife Khurshid Jahan Smriti during her testimony, could not provide any good explanation for the unusual circumstances and said it was all a coincidence.
While talking to journalists on Tuesday, Smriti said Jamaat-Shibir were behind the killing of her husband.
Jamaat leader’s son flees homeTwo sons of upazila Jamaat Ameer Yunus Ali have fled their home after the murder. The two Shibir leaders – Shariful Islam and Ashraful Islam – were among the main accused in the murder of four policemen at Bamandanga police outpost in 2013.
Several law enforcement sources said they could be involved in MP Liton murder but the suspicion is yet to be confirmed.
No Headway in 2013 casesThe vandalism and arson attacks conducted by the Jamaat-Shibir activists during 2013 and 2014, trials were yet to be completed.
Till February 2013, some 22 murders, including that of four policemen, took place in the Upazila.
Gaibandha SP Ashraful said some 149 cases were filed accusing 235 Jamaat-Shibir men in 2013 alone. Besides, several cases were filed in 2014 accusing some 146 Jamaat shibir men.
Many of them took bail from the court and the cases trial were yet to be started in speedy tribunal, he added.
WHO WAS MANJURUL ISLAM LITON - Born in January 1, 1968, Manjurul Islam Liton was son of former Awami League leader Ashraf Hossain and the sixth child among seven (four sisters and three brothers).
- He hailed from Masterpara of Bamndanga under Sundarganj of Gaibandha.
- His involvement with Chhatra League started when he was studying at Pirgachha Degree College and also became the upazila Chhatra League president around that time.
- He later went abroad and finished Diploma in Engineering.
- Completing studies, he came back and started working at his elder sister Afroza Bulbul’s company Ananda Builders, mainly at Ananda Shipyard in the late 1980s.
- He came to Gaibandha and started contract business after government went for partial privatisation in railway around 1999.
- Around 1999, he got involved with local politics again and in 2001 he came into light after protesting the visit of Jamaat leader Golam Azam in the area.
- He had started a cold storage business during the last caretaker government period, taking Tk19 crore as loan from a state-run bank.
- The first time he contested in the national elections was in 2008 as a rebel candidate but he backed down after PM Sheikh Hasina advised him to do so, however, AL lost the constituency to Jamaat leader Abdul Aziz.
- In 2014 national elections, he received candidacy from Awami League and won the Gaibandha 1 constituency.
- On October 2, 2014, he shot eight-year-old Shahadat Hossain Sourov of Gopalcharan village thrice when the child was jogging with his uncle.
- He also barred an ambulance from carrying the injured boy on the way to Rangpur Medical College Hospital for better treatment.
- He was then arrested by the Detective Branch of Police from one of his relatives house in Dhaka’s Uttara on October 14 in connection with the shooting.
- The High Court on October 12 rejected two anticipatory bail petitions filed by him and ordered him to surrender to the trial court.
- Finally he was granted bail on November 9 by a Gaibandha court to attend the Parliament session.
- He was shot dead at his home on December 31, 2016.