And a former leader of ruling BNP's student front was shot dead in a separate incident in the city the same day.

Sutrapur police retrieved the beheaded body of Nazmul Islam Mithu, 35, the currency trader, huddled in a TV carton from a dustbin behind Avishar Cinema Hall at Avoy Das Lane in Hatkhola yesterday noon. A deep cut almost severed the body from the waist.

Scavengers found the box in the dustbin which was sealed with tape and the body was also wrapped in a blue plastic bag. A bloodstained pillow was found inside the box. They immediately informed the neighbours who called the police. Police sent the body to Mitford hospital for autopsy.

Hands and legs of the victim were tied up with rope.

Later, some locals chased a gang of some five to six youths who were in a conversation at Gopibagh rail tracks about 3:45pm. The mob caught four of them named Ibrahim, Khokon, Babu and an unidentified youth and beat them up before turning them over to Sutrapur police. Ibrahim, who later died from the wounds at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told reporters they hacked Mithu to death at his (Ibrahim's) house at 89/2/5/A in RK Mission Road in Demra about 3:00am. Later, they packed the body in the TV carton and dumped it behind Avishar Cinema Hall.

The other arrestees said they threw the victim's head on the eastside of Bhanga Press at Demra. Police later recovered the head from the spot at 6:00pm and sent it to Mitford hospital.

Police quoting Ibrahim said Mithu had a dispute with his partners over Tk 5 lakh. He was called out of his Narinda residence, taken to RK mission Road and was killed at about 3:00am.

Ibrahim also told newsmen at the DMCH that Mithu was killed due to business rivalry. Ibrahim died at 6:20pm.

In another incident, unnamed assailants gunned down Liton, a former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leader, at Hrishikesh Das Lane in Sutrapur in the early hours of yesterday.

The assailants shot Liton, son of Abdul Khaleq who is a Union Parishad member of Sripur in Mymensingh, in the chest and head from close range. A rickshaw-puller rushed him to Mitford hospital where the attending doctors declared him dead.

The victim's uncle, Abdul Barek, said Liton used to stay with his family in Sripur but would frequent Dhaka. On the day of the incident, he went to a shop at Hrishikesh Das Lane about 11:30 on Monday night. As soon as he came out of the shop, a gang of five took him away at gunpoint.

Barek, however, could not cite any reasons for the killing.

Sutrapur police retrieved the body from the spot at about 2:30pm and sent it to Mitford hospital morgue for autopsy.

Liton's relatives said he was a JCD unit leader of Suhrawardy College in Old Dhaka.