Yar Ahmed Majumder, 47, was rushed to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) with two bullets in the head.

He was flown to Dhaka on a private helicopter and admitted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) yesterday afternoon. Sources said he was in a coma until then.

Police and witnesses said Ahmed was returning home at Port Colony by a rickshaw at around 9:45pm. Five men in a CNG-run auto-rickshaw stopped him, shot him point blank and drove away.

Ahmed, an employee of Marine Department of Chittagong Port, is general secretary of the BSJ, a workers organisation backed by Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD).

The BSJ blamed the attack on a pro-government workers organisation, but police termed it a sequel to internal feud among port workers' organisations.

The BSJ leaders alleged miscreants of the pro-government CBA (Chittagong Port Authority) group made an attack on Ahmed at the same spot about six months ago.

He filed a case against Zakir Hossain, a guard of the engineering department of the port, and several others, they added.

Different port workers organisation yesterday condemned the attack, demanding immediate arrest and punishment of the culprits. Otherwise, they would stop the port activities, they warned.