Dispute over yaba business might have worked behind the killing of Old Dhaka Jubo League leader Mannan, investigators have said, although his family claims it is a political murder.
Abdul Mannan, 32, general secretary of Dhaka South City Corporation’s ward number 31 unit of the ruling Awami League’s youth wing, died in the Apollo Hospital in the capital around 7am yesterday.
He was shot twice in the head and abdomen on late Tuesday night in the street near his Hatkhola residence.
Mannan used to run his own drug store in the medicine market near the Mitford Hospital in Old Dhaka.
But police said he was also involved with the trade of contraband narcotic pill yaba under the cover of his drug store. They also said Mannan was an informer of RAB; he used to tip RAB off about crimes in the Kamrangirchar area.
He came to be known as “Kana Mannan” in Kamrangirchar when he worked as a RAB informer. Later, he got involved in yaba peddling, police said.
There are also allegations that he produced fake drugs and sold them in his drug store. He has a murder case against his name with the Bangsal police station.
He got involved with the politics of Jubo League in the Hatkhola and adjacent Wari areas around eight years ago.
Reportedly, Mannan’s associate Al Amin was with him when the shooting took place but he had been mysteriously missing since then.
Mannan’s wife Nusrat Jahan Sathi claimed that she had seen from their balcony that Al Amin and two other young men were running away from the crime scene immediately after the murder.
She also said that she had talked to her husband over mobile phone before the shooting. Her husband told her that he was in front of their house and she heard gunshots as soon as she hung up.
Police meanwhile detained two people named Jalal and Rony in connection with the murder. Rony is the manager of Mannan’s drug store, Ajifa drugs.
Syed Nurul Islam, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Wari Zone, said they had found some clues and identified some of the assailants but did not disclose details.
Nusrat said Mannan had received death threats and faced attempts on his life in the past.
“He told me that if anything bad happens to him, local Juba League men Tarek Adel, Shawpan, Jalal and Kashem would be responsible,” Nusrat said.
She also claimed that Mannan had become an enemy to these men after he had turned down their proposal for joining their political group.
