Mastermind among three held

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday claimed to have arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in killing a police constable of Gazipur Metropoliton Police.

The arrestees are Mofazzal Hossain (28) and Masud Mia (25) of Mymensingh and Monir Hossain (30) of Netrakona.

A team of Rab-1 arrested the three from Mastarbari area of Gazipur on Saturday night and seized a bloodstained knife, a wrench and three mobile sets from their possessions, said Lt Col Shafee Bulbul, director of Rab-1. He was addressing a briefing at the battalion media centre in the capital's Karwan Bazar.

On March 4, police recovered the slaughtered body of a youth in front of Bhawal National Park in Gazipur. Four days later, police buried the body at Chandna cemetery in Gazipur as an unidentified body.

On March 12, Police Bureau of Investigation confirmed the identity of the deceased as Md Sharif Ahmed (33) -- a constable of Gazipur police -- through his fingerprint. The body was handed over to his family following a court order.

Rab was involved in the shadow investigation and based on information, arrested the planner and mastermind of the killing Mofazzal from Shreepur area of Gazipur, said the Rab-1 director.

Gleaning information from him, Rab arrested two others from Mymensingh, he said, adding that in primary interrogation, the arrestees admitted their involvement.

Rab said Sharif knew Mofazzal and Monir, driver of Gazipur Takwa Paribahan. There was a feud between Sharif and the duo, said Rab.

Recently, they had an argument which led to a scuffle. Following that, Mofazzal and Monir plotted to kill Sharif, said the Rab-1 director. As per the plan, Mofazzal hired one Masud for Tk 10,000 to kill Sharif.

On March 3, Mofazzal took Sharif to Vogra bypass area around 11:30pm where Monir was waiting with his bus. As soon as they boarded the vehicle, Monir drove towards the national park. There was no other passenger in the bus, said the Rab official.

At one point, Monir hit Sharif with the wrench. The duo killed him and dumped the body in front of the park (gate-4), added the Rab official.