Education office accountant shot in Khulna while out buying food for his daughter

A man named Mashiur Rahman (59) was injured after being shot by miscreants in the Miapara area of Khulna city. The incident took place at around 8 pm on Sunday, in front of a tea stall beside the Miapara Central Jame Mosque.

Mashiur Rahman works as an accountant at the Rupsa upazila education office in Khulna.

Speaking to journalists at the hospital, the injured Mashiur Rahman said he was going from Miapara Pipe Mor towards PTI Mor to buy food for his daughter. On the way, he saw three men on a motorcycle in front of a tea stall.

He said the men fired at someone else at that moment, but the bullet missed its target and struck him below his left ribs. Local people later rescued him and took him to hospital.

Lokman Hossain, officer-in-charge of Khulna Sadar police station, told Prothom Alo that the bullet grazed the flesh below the left side of the man's chest and exited. It seems, however, that he was not the target of the attackers.

The OC said it was being investigated who fired the shot and with what motive, and police were working to identify those involved in the incident.

Earlier, on Thursday afternoon, miscreants entered a tea stall in Dumuria upazila of Khulna and shot dead a young man named Tariqul Islam Sheikh (35). The incident took place at Gaffar's tea stall in the Ramkrishnapur Jora Bottala area of the upazila.

Two helmeted men arrived there on a motorcycle. After talking for a while, they shot Tariqul in the head, killing him on the spot.

The deceased Tariqul was a gher (fish enclosure) businessman. He was the son of Abdus Salam Sheikh, convener of the Rangpur Union BNP in Dumuria upazila.

On 2 November, police recovered the bullet-riddled bodies of two young men from the Singher Char area of Aichgati Union in Rupsa upazila of Khulna.

According to police and local sources, 77 people have been murdered in Khulna city and district in about ten months of this year. Of them, 39 were killed in the metropolitan area and 38 in areas under the district police.

Talking to the police officers concerned, it emerged that apart from the murders, at least 35 attempted murders took place in the district in the last ten months. Firearms and sharp weapons were used in these incidents.

In the last 15 days, at least five people have been injured by gunfire, and two more have been seriously injured in hacking attacks.