Shop owners and employees of Bangabazar and adjacent markets at Fulbaria in Dhaka observe shutdown and hold a rally on Monday, protesting at the killing of BNP leader Rafiqul Islam Majumdar in Kushtia. — Indrajit Ghosh

Traders and shop owners at Mahanagar Shopping Complex, Anex Tower and Banga Bazar Hawkers’ Market blocked the road in front of the markets on Monday in protest against the killing of their vice-president Rafiqul Islam Majumder.
The handcuffed body of Rafiqul, also Dhaka city’s ward 56 unit general secretary of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was found at Adabaria village of Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia at about 10:30pm on Saturday a few hours after he was allegedly picked up by Rapid Action Battalion personnel from Sailkupa in Jhenaidah.
BNP Standing Committe member Tariqul Islam on Monday accused the government of being behind the killing.
‘We believe RAB and police are involved in it... It was a planned killing,’ Tariqul told journalists in front of the BNP office at Naya Paltan before a namaz-e-janaza for Rafiqul.
The traders and shop owners took to the streets at about 11:15am, when the body of the leader reached the market.
They blocked the road for an hour.
The first namaz-e-janaza of Rafiqul was held at Kushtia on Sunday night before the body was taken to his house at Shanirakhra in Dhaka where a second janaza prayer was held on Monday morning.
His third janaza was held at the BNP office at Naya Paltan and the fourth at Fulbaria Railway Hospital jam-e- masjid at noon.
He was buried at his ancestral village at Sahrasty in Chandpur after a fifth janaza there.
Rafiqul’s mother-in-law alleged that he was picked up by about eight men dressed in RAB uniforms when he was visiting
them. She said she was kicked when she tried to stop them.
RAB authorities in Jhenaidah and Kushtia rejected the allegations.