Tipu was killed to avenge Milky murder: RAB

Awami League leader Zahidul Islam Tipu was killed as a retaliation against his alleged involvement in the murder of Juba League leader Reazul Haque Khan Milky, said Rapid Action Battalion.
 
A contract of Tk15 lakh was made with the assailants to kill Tipu and the killing mission was monitored from Dubai, said Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of the legal and media wing of RAB, at a press briefing on Saturday.
 
The mastermind of the murder is Omar Farooq, 52, general secretary of Awami League's ward-10 unit under Dhaka South City Corporation, said RAB Commander Moin.
 
A total of four people, including the alleged mastermind Farooq, have been arrested so far. The other arrestees are- Abu Saleh Sikder alias Shooter Saleh, 38, Nasir Uddin alias Killer Nasir, 38 and Morshedul Alam alias Kailla Palash 51.
 
The RAB official said Omar Farooq went to Dubai 12 days before the killing. He then contacted a man named Sumon Sikder Musa, an accused in the 'Bocha Babu' murder case, in Dubai for plotting the entire killing mission and appointing the shooter.
 
Before the killing, Killer Nasir Uddin, Kailla Palash and several others sent information about Zahidul Islam Tipu's whereabouts to Musa for several days, Moin said.
 
Commander Moin said all four arrested persons were close associates of murdered Jubo League's Dhaka Metropolitan (south) unit organising secretary Reazul Haque Khan Milky. They believed that Tipu was involved in Milky's murder.
 
After the murder of Milky in 2013, the arrested persons claimed Tipu's involvement in the murder and staged a demonstration demanding his punishment. They got enraged as Tipu was acquitted by the court.
 
Despite several attempts, Tipu was acquitted in the case but one of his associates Rizvi Hasan alias 'Bocha Babu' was assassinated in 2016 by Farooq and his accomplices.
 
As per the primary interrogation of the arrestees, the Rizvi murder trial that had recently been transferred to a speedy trial tribunal was because of Tipu's influence.
 
To slow down the case proceedings, the assailants decided to kill Tipu, Moin said.
 
Motijheel Awami League's former general secretary Zahidul Islam Tipu, 58, was shot dead in Shajahanpur's Amtola Mosque area in the capital city on the night of 24 March.
 
A college student named Samia Afnan, 22 was also killed in the shooting. She was on a rickshaw stuck in a traffic jam at the time. The driver of Zahidul's microbus was injured in the incident.