Shooter killed Tipu on 2nd attempt, used social media for updates: DB
Arrestee Masum Mohammad alias Akash was hired to kill AL leader Tipu 5 days prior to the incident
The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has arrested the alleged shooter who killed Awami League leader Zahidul Islam Tipu and college student Samia Afrin Prity on a busy city street last week.
The arrestee, Masum Mohammad alias Akash, was nabbed by DB men from Bogura on Saturday, DMP DB Additional Commissioner AKM Hafiz Akter said during a press briefing today (27 March).
He said, "Akash was planning to flee the country using the Joypurhat border. He then changed his location to Bogura to escape law enforcers. Four of our teams were on the hunt for him."
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"Akash and one other were hired to kill Tipu five days before the incident. They were informed about their target a couple of days after. We are yet to locate the gun used in the shooting."
The DB additional commissioner further informed that Akash had a murder case filed against him and his father is a school teacher.
According to a DMP press release, Akash, during primary interrogation, confessed that he and his associate followed Tipu on his way back home from his restaurant in Motijheel on Wednesday (23 March).
It was then when they, for the first time, attempted to kill Tipu but could not do so due to a crowd.
However, Akash succeeded in his mission to kill the ruling party leader the next day after being tipped off about his whereabouts by an unknown individual.
Two of Akash's friends helped him to stay under the radar as he used social media to monitor the developments surrounding the incident, added the release.
Tipu, former general secretary of Awami League's Motijheel police station committee, and Prity, a 22-year-old student of Begum Badrunnesa Government College, were killed when an assailant opened fire at them in the capital's Khilgaon Rail-Gate area on Thursday (24 March) night.
The assailant shot 12 rounds of bullets just within 20 seconds, and it was not a movie. This horrific incident took place on a city road amid huge traffic.
The driver and a passenger of the white-coloured microbus were brutally shot, especially the latter, who was shot 6-7 times while the driver was shot twice.
The shots, fired in rapid succession, shattered the left side glasses of the car before hitting Tipu.
He was shot in the throat, chest and abdomen, among other body parts. At least 10-12 bullets hit the victim and his driver Monir Hossain Munna, 34, according to the inquest report that detailed the brutal shooting.
"It was as if someone was taking revenge and poured all of his grudge while shooting. Indiscriminate shooting also suggests that he might have panicked or was not a professional hitman. Professional killers never fire indiscriminately, they only shoot at the target. It wouldn't hit the adjacent rickshaw like it did in this case," said a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) ballistic expert wishing anonymity.
College student Prity -- who was on a rickshaw on her way to a friend's place in Khilgaon -- was also shot during this time.
The on-duty doctor of Dhaka Medical College Hospital pronounced Tipu and Prity dead when they were taken to the hospital.
