BNP leader, bodyguard shot dead in Khulna

BNP's Khulna district unit organising secretary Sardar Alauddin Mithu has been shot dead along with one of his bodyguards at his office in Phultola upazila. Police have detained a suspect over the shooting. Mithu, 45, was shot in the head at point blank range while two of his bodyguards and father-in-law were received bullet injuries in the Thursday night shooting, police said. Nowsher Gazi, 42, one of the bodyguards, succumbed to his injuries at the Khulna Medical College Hospital on Friday morning. Khulna's Superintendent of Police (SP) Nizamul Haque Molla said five assailants, who came by motorcycles, took part in the attack. “They shot Nowsher first and barged into Mithu's office around 10pm where they shot dead Mithu,” he said. “The BNP leader's other bodyguard Sirajul Islam, 45, and father-in-law, who were inside the office, sustained bullet injuries.” The motive behind the shooting or the identities of the killers could not be known yet. Police detained a suspect, 40-year-old Imrul Sheikh, on Thursday night from the area soon after the incident, SP Nizamul said. “We are questioning him,” he added. Mithu, a former chairman of Khulna Upazila Parishad, had been a target of assassination in the past. His father Sardar Abul Kashem, a former Damodar Union Parishad chairman, was assassinated on March 6, 1998. Mithu's elder brother Sardar Abu Sayeed was shot dead on August 16, 2010.