Police have yet to identify the motive behind the killing of journalist Imdadul Haque Milon in Dumuria upazila of Khulna, and no case has been filed and no arrests made as of Saturday morning, police said. Panic continues to prevail in the area following the shooting, while Milon’s family remains in shock.
Milon, a journalist for the online news portal Khulna’s Current Time, was shot dead around 9:30 pm on Thursday, December 18, at Shalua Bazar in Rangpur Union. His friend, Debashish Biswas, a veterinarian, was also shot and injured and is currently undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Milon’s body was buried on Friday evening after an autopsy, family members said.
According to witnesses, Milon and Debashish were sitting at a tea shop in Shalua Bazar when four assailants on two motorcycles opened fire and fled along the Daulatpur–Shahapur and Gutudiya–Shalua roads. Shops in the market remained closed on Friday amid fear. Senior police officials and members of the Rapid Action Battalion visited the scene shortly after the incident.
Milon’s father, Bazlur Rahman, said his son was a BNP supporter and general secretary of the Shalua Bazar Committee, and was involved in journalism, a rice mill business, and land transactions. Milon’s wife, Rehana Begum, said her husband had a dispute with a local youth named Sujan Sarkar, who had vandalised his business months earlier. She is now left to care for three children, including a five-year-old with a physical disability. Police Inspector Shajahan Ahmed of Arangghata Police Station said two shotguns and a pistol shell casing were recovered from the scene and that police are continuing efforts to uncover the motive behind the killing.
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