Prime accused held in Rangpur woman killing

Rab has arrested the prime accused in the murder of a woman whose throat was slit after she protested the stalking of her younger sister in Nageshwari upazila of Kurigram.

The accused is Abul Kalam, 42, a resident of Char Harikesh area under Kurigram’s Sadar upazila.

Acting on a tip-off, a Rab team arrested him during a raid at a house on Station Road in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur on Thursday night, according to a press release issued by Rab-13 yesterday.

Biplab Kumar Goswami, senior assistant director (media) of Rab-13, confirmed that Kalam has been handed over to the concerned police station for legal action.

He added that operations are ongoing to arrest the other accused in the case.

The incident occurred on January 14. The victim’s father, Saifur Rahman, filed a murder case against Kalam and others with Kochakata Police Station the following day.

According to the case statement, Kalam and his associates made advances on the younger sister of the deceased, Shahida Khatun, 36. Shahida came to know about the matter and called for a village arbitration against the accused in January this year. However, as Kalam and his associates failed to appear on the scheduled day, the matter remained unresolved.

Around 7:30 pm on January 14, while Shahida was engaged in household work, Kalam and his associates attacked her. At one stage, they slit her throat with a sharp weapon and fled the scene, leaving her dead on the spot.

The case statement notes that Shahida was targeted and killed because she protested the stalking of her sister.

Kalam and the other accused went into hiding after the murder.