A relative consoles the murdered teacher’s wife. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, May 29: A 28-year-old madarsa teacher with CPM links was shot dead by unidentified men at Sujapur this morning.

Although family members of Sheikh Obahedullah said he had no enemies, police hinted that he was murdered in revenge for an attack on a man in the locality on April 4.

Obahedullah, an Arabic teacher at Dariyapur High Madarsa, was returning home from the market when he was sprayed with bullets by three-four men around 7.30am.

“Three bullets hit the teacher on his chest, abdomen and back and he fell on the ground,” said Jayanta Pal, the superintendent of police of Malda.

As Obahedullah lay in a pool of blood, the attackers fired indiscriminately to scare away people who were coming to his rescue. Although the people were too frightened to rush to the spot initially, some of them later mustered the courage and took him to Malda Medical College and Hospital. But he had died by then.

Obahedullah used to live at Brahmapur with his wife, whom he had married six months back.

Sikandar Alam, the deceased’s father–in-law, said Obahedullah had a trouble-free life. “We have no clue about the motive behind the murder. I have never heard of my son-in-law getting into any sort of trouble. Why should somebody kill him?” asked Alam, sitting at Kaliachak police station.

Obahedullah’s wife Shabnam has been losing consciousness on and off ever since she came to know about the murder.

The police chief said Obahedullah’s murder could be a case of revenge. “One Sheikh Haider was shot at in Sujapur on April 4. Obahedullah’s name had cropped up during the investigation. We suspect that Obahedullah was murdered in revenge for the attack on Haider. We are trying to get more information,” said Pal.

Sujapur is 15km from here.

Obahedullah’s brother Sahidulla said the teacher had gone out of the home early in the morning to give tuition.

“My brother was a CPM worker and an active supporter of the ABTA (All Bengal Teachers’ Association, an affiliate of the party). He had gone to the market after giving tuition and was supposed to return home and attend the school. The murder could be the handiwork of some local criminals, but I don’t know why they did it.”