Bangladesh: 3 sentenced to death for Tangail UP chairman murder

A Tangail court on September 21, 2026 sentenced three people, including a former central leader of the banned Bangladesh Chhatra League, to death and four others to life imprisonment for the murder of a union parishad chairman.

Rafiqul Islam Faruk was a three-time chairman of Dainna Union Parishad and senior vice-president of Tangail Sadar upazila BNP.

Md Faisal Al Mamun, first additional district and sessions judge of Tangail, delivered the verdict in a crowded courtroom.

The death-row convicts are Saniyat Khan Bappa, 30, a former central vice-president of Chhatra League; Azad, 25; and Shahjahan Miah, 31. All three are absconding.

The court also fined each of them Tk 1 lakh.

Bappa is the son of former Tangail-3 MP Ataur Rahman Khan and younger brother of former MP Amanur Rahman Khan Rana.

The four people sentenced to life imprisonment were each fined Tk 50,000, with an additional year of simple imprisonment in default.

They are Sujan, 32; Sanowar Hossain, 34; Roosevelt alias Emon, 26; and Shafiqul Islam Shafiq, 25. Emon and Shafiq are absconding.

The court acquitted another accused as the charges against him were not proved.

According to the prosecution, Faruk went out for a walk in Akurtakur area of Tangail town early on December 20, 2013. He was shot and hacked to death near Bottola Bazar.

His younger brother Lavlu Miah filed a murder case with Tangail Sadar Police Station the following day.

Police submitted a charge sheet against eight people in August 2015. Dissatisfied with the investigation, Lavlu later filed a petition seeking reinvestigation.

Following a court order, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) reinvestigated the case and submitted a fresh charge sheet against the same eight accused in April 2018.

The trial began after charges were framed. The court recorded statements of 21 witnesses before delivering the verdict.