Witnesses said the gang of two attacked 55-year-old Abdus Salam, general secretary of JP's Mongla Pourasabha unit, at about 9:30pm when he was walking home to Kumarkhali from mosque after prayers.

Salam, also former acting chairman of Mongla Pourasabha, was declared dead on arrival at Mongla Upazila Health Complex after he suffered bullet wounds to chest and head in close-range fire.

The murder sent local traders shutting their shops and brought life to a near-standstill in security fears that led to deployment of additional police in the area.

Hundreds of people brought out an overnight procession after the killing and demanded immediate removal of Officer-in-Charge of Mongla Police Station Shahabuddin Khalifa, blaming him for law and order downslide.

Dockers in the southeastern port town of Mongla called the hartal to protest the killing that echoes the slaying of ruling BNP's Mongla Pourasabha unit joint secretary Talukder Abdul Halim by unidentified assailants on Srama Kalyan Road on December 15.

In another incident, Asaduzzaman Murad, central vice-president of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) and a member of the executive committee of Khulna District Sports Association, was severely injured in a drive-by bomb attack on the party office in Sonadanga in Khulna at 7:00pm yesterday.

The 34-year-old man was admitted to a local clinic with leg wounds.

Witnesses said one of the three attackers hurled a bomb from a speeding motorbike at the JCD office where Murad was talking with his party colleagues.

Leaders of the BNP and its student chapter JCD and youth front Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal blamed the attack on the local unit of the main opposition party Awami League.

Police described the attack as the result of intra-party conflict.