Gunmen have shot and killed a 35-year-old man inside a tea shop in the Dumuria upazila of Khulna, striking on the very day Prime Minister Tarique Rahman was scheduled to visit the district.
The victim, identified as Tariqul Islam Sheikh, was the son of Abdus Salam Sheikh, the convener of the Rangpur Union unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The fatal attack occurred at around 1:45 pm on Thursday at Ghaffar’s tea shop, situated near the Ambhita-Ramkrishnapur Jora Bottala area. Eyewitnesses reported that Tariqul was sitting inside the establishment when unidentified assailants targeted him at close range, opening fire without warning. He succumbed to his bullet wounds at the scene before any emergency assistance could be rendered.
The brazen homicide unfolded just over an hour before Prime Minister Tarique Rahman entered Khulna via road from neighbouring Bagerhat at 3:00 pm. The timing of the shooting has cast a long shadow over the high-profile visit, underscoring heightened anxiety over law and order in the southwestern division.
Local authorities launched an immediate investigation into the incident. The Officer-in-Charge of Dumuria Police Station, Khandakar Hafizur Rahman, confirmed that police teams reached the location shortly after receiving news of the shooting.
“We arrived at the spot promptly and initiated a thorough investigation. Drive and search operations are currently underway across the area to track down the perpetrators,” Rahman stated. He added that the underlying motive behind the killing remains unclear, and law enforcement agencies are actively working to establish the identities of those involved.
Khulna District Superintendent of Police Omar Farooq corroborated the casualty, confirming that a young man had died of gunshot injuries. He reassured the public that police are probing every possible angle to bring the culprits to justice under the full extent of the law.
This violent occurrence is not an isolated incident during high-profile government visits in the region. Security concerns have intensified across Khulna following a similar wave of gun violence just two weeks prior.
On 22 October, during the Prime Minister’s scheduled visit to the Sundarbans, Dacope, and Mongla, a 35-year-old man named Tushar was shot dead in the Mistripara area of Khulna city in the early hours of the morning. Later that same evening, armed assailants entered the Jinnah Para neighborhood and shot dead a young girl, Khushi Akter, directly in front of her mother.
The recurrent pattern of violent crimes coinciding with executive visits has put regional police units under intense scrutiny. Security measures throughout Khulna and Dumuria upazila have been significantly reinforced as homicide detectives continue to collect forensic evidence, interview local residents, and establish the sequence of events leading up to Tariqul’s murder.
