The slain teacher, Abul Bashar Badshah, 35, was the controller of examinations and a teacher of general mathematics at E Haq Coaching Centre, where he had been serving for nine years.

Badshah was alone in the cash counter of the office room on the first floor of a three-storey building at Lake Circus in Kalabagan when assailants sprayed him with bullets. The building's second and ground floors are used for residential purposes.

A few students who went to collect admit cards found Badsha lying on a pool of blood at around 2:45pm. Being informed, police rushed to the spot and found Badsha dead.

Owner of the coaching centre Emadul Haq quoted a local woman as saying that between 2:15pm and 2:30pm she saw three youths coming down hurriedly from upstairs, who left the place on a motorbike parked near the coaching centre.

They looked abnormal, the woman told Emadul.

Badsha and Sanwar Hossain were the given the charge of recently inaugurated 18th branch of the coaching centre at Faridabad in old part of the city, Emadul said. Badsha told Emadul that a local gang demanded toll from Badsha and threatened to 'see him' as he told the gang that he was merely a teacher and could not afford to give any toll.

Emadul said a dreaded criminal gang of Kalabagan and Dhanmondi area demanded toll from him three years back. As he refused to provide them the toll, they sprayed bullets and blasted bombs at the Kalabagan centre, after which he filed a case.

The victim's younger brother Jalal said his brother had to send his wife and three kids back to their village home in Jhalakathi a few months ago as he could not afford to keep them in Dhaka.

Since then he and his brother were staying at a mess at Gendaria, Jalal said, adding that Badsha earned roughly Tk 4,000 a month from the coaching centre.