President of ward No 23 unit of Jamaat-e-Islami, Shahabuddin has been absconding since State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar directed police to arrest him after reviewing the progress of investigation into the murder case by the monitoring cell in its 42nd meeting held last week in Dhaka.

The special combing operation was, however, ordered by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ashraful Huda while holding an important meeting on Saturday with ten police supers of Khulna division, commissioner and all deputy commissioners of the Khulna Metropolitan Police (KMP).

According to a senior KMP officer, Shahabuddin Laskar alias Dhira (40) is the godfather of a group of armed cadres having close links with an underground party. A cloth merchant by profession, the alleged Jamaat leader is also an illegal arms trader and has connections with militant leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, said a reliable source of an important intelligence agency of the government.

Intelligence agency sources said that journalist Belal was a Jamaat-e-Islami activist. A diehard protester of politics of violence, he had strained relations with Shahabuddin as the latter formed a group of armed cadres to hit his opponents in any political parties including the party he belongs to.

Relations between Belal and Shahabuddin soured absolutely since 1997 when Belal reportedly opposed Shahabuddin's three attempts on the life of a prominent Awami League (AL) leader. The AL leader, the present secretary of the party's Khulna city committee, survived the bomb attacks in 1997 and 1998.

Shahabuddin Laskar was seen in the Khulna Press Club canteen several times a week before the bomb attack on Belal. He had also threatened Belal with death twice in last two years, said a source of Jamaat-e-Islami.