An activist of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) was hacked to death near Gulshan Lake in the capital on Monday night.

“Police recovered the blood-soaked body of the victim, identified as Sourav Hossain, from the walkway beside Road 55 in Gulshan around midnight. It was later sent to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital for autopsy,” said Ali Ahmed Masud, Assistant Commissioner (Gulshan Zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Sourav hailed from Bauphal upazila in Patuakhali and was known to be an activist of the Shurjamoni Union unit of JCD.

Witnesses said three to four assailants attacked Sourav with sharp weapons, leaving multiple stab wounds on his body.

Gulshan Police Station Sub-Inspector Moshior Rahman told journalists that they recovered the body around 12:00am after receiving information at 11:40pm.

Kawsar Hossain, former member of Bauphal JCD and senior vice-president of Shurjamoni Union JCD, said, "Saurav was murdered in a pre-planned manner. He was a dedicated activist of the nationalist ideology.”

Kawsar mentioned that around 7:30pm on Monday, Saurav told one of their associates that he was going to meet someone named Rubel at Gulshan Lake.

When asked about any political dispute, Kawsar said Saurav had both allies and rivals in politics. However, he recently had an altercation with his landlord over a relationship with the latter’s daughter. “We are not sure how exactly the incident occurred,” he said, adding that the area is under CCTV surveillance.

Saurav’s brother-in-law Masum Billah said they were at the police station preparing to file a murder case. “We hope the killers will be arrested soon,” he said.