A Bangladesh Nationalist Party-backed Juba Dal leader was killed and his two associates were injured in an attack allegedly by rivals over establishing supremacy in Sherpur Sadar on Tuesday night.
The deceased, Jakaria Badal, 47, was joint convenor of the sadar upazila unit of Juba Dal and former assistant general secretary of the Sherpur Government College Students鈥� Union. He was a resident of Kamaria union of the upazila.
One of the injured, Sohag Mia, is undergoing treatment at Mymensingh Medical College and Hospital while the rest, Ruhul, 32, is at Sherpur Sadar Hospital.
Badal鈥檚 relative and also a Chhatra Dal activist Ramzan Ali said that there had long been rivalry between Badal and local Kamaria union unit of BNP鈥檚 convenor Lutfor Rahman over leadership.
The relationship between them deteriorated recently due to alleged grouping in the district-level unit of the BNP, he said.
Meanwhile, Lutfor met Badal鈥檚 another opponent Nure Alam, former chairman of the UP and a Krishak League leader who has been in jail now, he said.
Ansar Ali, sub inspector of Sherpur Sadar police station, said that Badal and his associates, who were riding a motorbike, came under attack on the way to home from local Bhimganj Bazar on Tuesday afternoon.
The miscreants stabbed them with sharp weapons, leaving them critically injured, he said.
They were initially taken to Sherpur Sadar Hospital and later Badal and Sohag were shifted to Mymensingh Medical College and Hospital, he said. Badal succumbed to his injuries on way to Dhaka from Mymensingh hospital as his condition deteriorated around 11:00pm, he said.
Tension gripped the union following the death of Badal, forcing them to deploy joint forces in the area to ward off any unwanted incident further, said Sherpur police superintendent Md Aminul Islam.
Police launched a crackdown to arrest those involved with the murder, he added.
