POLICE in Rajapur have arrested the principal suspect in the murder of a local young man, four days after the victim was dragged from his residence, beaten, and hacked to death.
The suspect, 55-year-old Mohammad Shahjahan Howlader, was apprehended at around midnight on Monday, 2 November, during a joint operation conducted in the Madhya Kabutarkhali area of Mathbaria sub-district, Pirojpur.
The raid was executed by Second Officer Mohammad Shahidul Islam of Rajapur Police Station, operating in close coordination with officers from the Mathbaria police division. Investigators tracked Shahjahan’s movements using modern surveillance technology alongside reliable intelligence gathered on the ground. Following his capture, the suspect was transferred to Rajapur Police Station for formal interrogation.
The homicide occurred in the early hours of Wednesday at approximately 3:30 am, when a group of miscreants forcibly abducted the victim, Nure Alam, from his rented home in the Naikathi area under Rajapur. The attackers severely assaulted and slashed Nure Alam before dumping his body inside a drainage ditch near the Kotbeltola intersection in Kathipara. Local residents discovered the body later that morning and alerted the police, who recovered the remains and sent them to the hospital morgue for a forensic autopsy.
On the day the body was found, the victim’s younger brother, Mohammad Mahe Alam, filed a murder case at Rajapur Police Station. The complaint formally named three key suspects while listing a further four to five unnamed individuals as co-accused. Shahjahan Howlader, a resident of Uttar Tarabunia in the Saturia union of Rajapur and son of the late Abdul Sattar Howlader, was identified as the prime perpetrator.
Police records reveal that Shahjahan has a long criminal history. He is implicated in multiple armed robberies across several jurisdictions and stands accused in a high-profile case involving the murder of a police officer’s wife registered at Kaukhali Police Station.
Sujan Biswas, Officer-in-Charge of Rajapur Police Station, confirmed the arrest and stated that security forces are maintaining active operations across the region to locate and apprehend the remaining absconding suspects involved in the killing.
