Cop kills cop: Detectives have no clue about motive

Close-circuit television camera footage revealed details of an on-duty police constable killing another cop near the Palestinian embassy in the capital’s Baridhara Saturday night.

The footage shows Constable Kawsar Ahmed, 41, and his colleague Monirul, 27, engaging in an altercation. At one stage, Monirul appears to show Kawsar a duty notebook. Almost instantly, Kawsar is seen shooting Monirul.

Monirul immediately fell on the road from the pavement. Then Kawsar was seen firing several more shots, almost at point-blank.

Kawsar did not try to flee. At first, he did not allow anyone to get close to him. He was later arrested by Gulshan police from the scene.

SM Jahangir Hasan, additional deputy commissioner of police, said, “Kawsar has not disclosed anything yet. He is acting like a mentally distressed person. But we are hoping to learn everything in later interrogations.”

“In primary interrogation, we did not find any previous conflict between the two constables. We quizzed Kawsar, who was punctual in his duty as per the record of the last couple of months,” said Kh Mahid Uddin, additional commissioner (crime and operations).

“We are yet to ascertain what initiated their altercation,” he added.

The police officer said they would be able to know more by interrogating the suspect within a day or two after he settled down mentally.

Asked whether the constable was overworked or not getting leave for the Eid holidays, Mahid Uddin replied in the negative.

“He was not stressed or overworked, as there was no pressure on duty…Besides, our force members now get adequate leaves,” he said.

Meanwhile, the victim’s elder brother, Mahbubul Haque, also a police constable, filed a case with the Gulshan Police Station.

Kawsar was shown arrested in the case and produced before a Dhaka court, which placed him on a seven-day remand.

Mahbubul told this newspaper, “My brother was very gentle, and had no enmity with anyone.”

Monirul got married after he joined the force in 2018. He has a 19-month-old boy.

“I did not know how to console his wife and my parents as they broke down after learning about the incident,” he added.

His body is expected to be buried at his family graveyard in Netrakona today.

The incident happened at 11:41pm on Saturday near the Palestine Embassy in Dhaka.

A driver of an embassy vehicle, Sajjad Hossain, was also shot and is now at United Hospital.

According to the first information report, police recovered 22 bullets and 34 bullet casings from the spot. The shots were fired from an SMT9 sub-machine gun.

According to sources at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital’s morgue, Monirul’s body bore some 18 bullet wounds (including entry and exit wounds) on his head, chest, and stomach.