Two suspected killers of slain ex-PDB chief Khijir Khan have told the police they believed that hacking someone to death was a more pious act than murdering them with a gun.
The suspects told this to the police after their arrests; they also confessed of committing similar murders by hacking over the last couple of years as part of a JMB sleeper cell.
Tarikul Islam alias Mithu – the alleged mastermind of the Khijir killing – was detained from Tangail and his associate – Alek Bepari – from the capital’s Mirpur area on Wednesday.
Although the microbus used in the killing was yet to be recovered, two laptops and two cameras looted from Khijir’s house have now been recovered.
The suspects were both placed under a three-day remand yesterday by a Dhaka court.
In a press conference, DB Deputy Commissioner (north) Sheikh Nazmul Alam said: “The murder [of Khijir] was committed over religious ideology.”
During primary interrogation, the detainees informed that Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was regrouping by killing the “pirs” who ran “majars,” according to DB sources.
Former Power Development Board chairman Khijir Khan, 66, was a freedom fighter, and a pir or holy man who operated his own khanqa sharif – a religious meeting place.
Investigators said they would now question the suspects to find out whether Khijir’s death and the Gopibagh six-murder case – in which a pir and his followers were murdered – were somehow connected.
On October 5, the killers went to meet Khijir Khan at his residence in the capital’s Madhya Badda around 7pm, the police said.
There, they divided in two groups: one hacked and killed Khijir Khan on the first floor where he ran his khanqa sharif, the other group headed up to the third floor to loot his home.
Looting the crime scenes or abducting people were now some of the primary sources of funding for the banned militant outfit, police sources said.
Suspects placed under remand
A Dhaka court yesterday placed the detainees under a three-day remand.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Rashed Talukder issued the order after Detective Branch Inspector Md Azizur Rahman pleaded for a 10-day remand for the arrestees.
The plaintiff of the case, Khijir Khan’s son Md Ashraful Islam, was present at the court, while no lawyer was there to defend the arrestees.
Police sources said Tarek had previously been in jail for five years in connection with the 2005 series bomb blasts. Alek, meanwhile, drove the microbus used in Khijir’s killing.
Investigators said they were both followers of Farooq, the alleged mastermind of the snatching of JMB prisoners in Trishal.
