Police are yet to trace any vital clue that can help in solving the mystery surrounding the death of an A-Level student in Jatrabari, who was killed during what intelligence officials primarily suspected a “premeditated attack.”
However, the victim’s family disputed the police claim of the incident being anything more than an “organised robbery” and filed a robbery case with the local police station.
As of on Saturday evening, no one was arrested in this connection, although police is currently interrogating the husband of a housemaid who was present at the crime scene.
Bakhtiar Mohammad Latif, a student of Dhanmondi-based English-medium school Academia and the only son of transport businessman Jahid Al Latif, was shot dead in the early hours of Friday as he attempted to prevent an unidentified group of attackers from entering his family’s residence in North Jatrabari.
In the case filed after the incident, Jahid brought charges against seven to eight unnamed robbers for killing his 19-year-old son and looting four tola gold ornaments.
In this regard, Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that there were reasons to believe it was not merely an incident of robbery and could be linked to past feuds of the family.
“The murder can be pre-planned. However, we are questioning the victim’s relatives and housemaids to find clues that may help us unravel the mystery,” he said.
Incidentally, a pet dog of the family was allegedly killed by food poisoning about two weeks ago – making police suspect a connection between the two incidents.
The other reason for police to believe the murder was premeditated is that the victim’s father, Jahid, has eight brothers and sisters – all relatively well-off. Police suspect there might have been feuds among them over ownership of property.
However, Jahid ruled out previous enmity as a potential motive and said had it been the case, the attackers would have targeted him instead of his son.
Meanwhile, the responsibility of the case was handed over to the Detective Branch (DB) of police which will be assisted by the Criminal Investigation Department and several other teams of police.
Contacted for comments, Minhazul Islam, assistant commissioner of police of the Demra division, said, “We are investigating the incident to know whether it was robbery or a pre-planned attack. We are taking all aspects related to the incident and those involved into account.”
He further said police were interrogating Russel, the husband of a housemaid of the family, who was there when the incident occurred and was the first one to be tied up by the attackers.
