Former Gaibandha-1 lawmaker and ruling Awami League’s alliance partner Jatiya Party’s Presidium member Col (retd) Abdul Kader Khan had planned, financed, and hired people to have ruling party lawmaker Manzurul Islam Liton murdered so that he could retake the constituency, police said citing Kader's confessional statement.

“He did it for power,” Khandker Golam Faruq, deputy inspector general (DIG) of Rangpur Range, told the media after Kader confessed before a magistrate yesterday.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Joynal Abedin finished recording his statement at 9:27pm after police produced the former Jatiya Party lawmaker before him around 2:00pm.

Kader was sent to jail afterwards.

Briefing reporters on the court premises, Additional DIG Bashir Ahmed said, “He [Kader] told the magistrate that none provoked him to do it [murder]. Rather, he did it on his own.”

The police official said they would submit the charge sheet in the case within 15 days and after completing their investigation, reports our Gaibandha correspondent.

Several people have already been arrested and the police were conducting raids to arrest more people who assisted Kader with information, police said.

Kader, a doctor, was arrested at his home-slash-clinic in Bogra town on February 21. Later, he was placed on a 10-day remand.

Assailants opened fire on Liton inside his home in Gaibandha's Sundarganj upazila on December 31.
Before Kader's arrest, police arrested three people who allegedly took part in the murder. They are: Kader's driver Abdul Hannan and caretakers of his house Shaheen Mia and Mehedi Hasan.

The arrestees had given confessional statements before a court and Kader was arrested based on their statements, police said.

According to police, Kader had planned to kill Liton in October last year, but failed.

In that plan, Liton's car was supposed to be rear-ended by another vehicle, and when Liton would get out of his car, he was to be shot at.

But Kader could not implement that plan, police said.

A new plan was hatched and Mehedi, Shaheen and Hannan carried out the killing mission on December 31 evening. Mehedi fired five shots at Liton, they said.

Police said Kader trained the killers at his home -- on how to carry out the mission and use a gun. The three men went to Liton's home from Kader's home.

Police had pumped dry three ponds inside Kader's home to find the murder weapon.

Kader, while on remand, told police that the gun was under a tree on the yard of his home.

There were six bullets in the gun, said police. Kader had earlier accidentally fired one shot and police recovered the projectile from a wall.

The remaining five bullets were used for killing Liton, police said.