Dhaka, Jan 14 With growing political violence ahead of the February elections in Bangladesh, a leader of the radical Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, was killed at his residence in Dhaka, local media reported on Wednesday.
The deceased, identified as 65-year-old Anwar Ullah, was a local leader of Jamaat from Dhaka.
Citing a police official, leading Bangladeshi daily The Dhaka Tribune reported that the incident unfolded in the early hours of Tuesday.
According to the officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, Monirul Islam, the attackers forced their way into the two-storey house by cutting through the iron grills.
After breaking into the house, they tied up Anwar's wife before killing him.
The assailants reportedly fled with cash and gold ornaments. The family members alleged that the killing was carried out as part of a premeditated plan.
Recalling the incident, his son-in-law, Md Shamsuddoha, said two masked men broke into the house around 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday by cutting the grill and tortured Anwar by tying his hands.
"My mother-in-law called me around 5:00 a.m. and informed me about the incident. I rushed to the house and found him unconscious. A scarf was wrapped around his neck," Bangladesh's leading newspaper, The Daily Star, quoted Shamsuddoha as saying.
He added that Anwar was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
This latest incident comes against the backdrop of a degrading law and order situation and escalating political violence across Bangladesh ahead of the general elections.
Last week, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) youth wing, Jubo Dal, was killed in a late-night attack in Panchbibi upazila of Joypurhat district, with his younger brother also injured, local media reported, citing police officials.
The deceased, identified as 31-year-old Yanul Hossain, was reportedly an active member of Jubo Dal, while his 22-year-old younger brother, Abdul Momin, sustained injuries during the attack.
Earlier on the night of January 7, a leader of the BNP's voluntary wing, Jatiyatabadi Swechasebak Dal, was shot dead by gunmen in Dhaka.
Azizur Rahman Mosabbir, a joint convener of the Swechasebak Dal's Dhaka North unit, was reportedly having tea with a party colleague at a stall behind the Bashundhara City Shopping Mall in the Karwan Bazar area when several assailants arrived on motorcycles, opened fire indiscriminately, and fled.
Recently, the BNP raised serious concerns over the law and order situation in the country ahead of the February elections, criticising the performance of law enforcement agencies under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government.
Bangladesh has witnessed escalating protests and a deteriorating law and order situation since the Yunus-led interim government assumed power in August 2024.
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