Bangladesh police said on Sunday they had arrested a man suspected of killing the wife of an anti-terrorism police officer, just weeks after she was stabbed and shot in the southeastern city of Chittagong.
The murder, initially blamed on Islamist militants, raised tension in the Muslim-majority country, which is reeling from a wave of killings of secular activists, religious minorities and foreigners in recent months.
Chittagong police chief Iqbal Bahar told reporters that officers detained Wasim, who uses one name, on the outskirts of the city on Saturday and he had admitted his role in the killing.
“We suspect Wasim as the main killer who stabbed and shot dead Mahmuda [Begum],” Mr. Bahar said, referring to the wife of top Chittagong anti-terrorism police officer Babul Akter.
A professional killer “Wasim is a professional killer. During interrogation, he admitted his involvement in the murder. But we could not know whether he is linked with any militant outfit,” Mr. Bahar said, adding one of his associates who was involved in the killing was also arrested.
Police had suspected home-grown Islamist militants for the murder, after Mr. Akter led several high-profile operations against the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militant group in the southeastern city in recent months. In October last year Mr. Akter and his team arrested top JMB militant Mohammad Javed along with four others and seized a huge cache of explosives from their hideout, according to police. Javed was later killed by a grenade during a police raid.
