One of the accused of Tongi's labour leader Shahidul Islam murder case has been arrested from a hotel in Cox's Bazar sea beach.

Akash Ahmed alias Babul, 43, was arrested by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from a hotel at Kalatoli area of the sea beach after Thursday midnight. With him, a total of eight people have been arrested in the case so far.

RAB-15's Cox's Bazar office's deputy commander Major Syed Sadikul Huque disclosed it at a press conference held at the RAB-15's Cox's Bazar office early Friday afternoon.

Arrested Akash hails from village Botteki under Mirzapore upazila in Tangail district. He is the son of Siddiqur Rahman.

RAB-15's Cox's Bazar's senior assistant director (Legal and Mass Media) and additional police super Abul Salam Chowdhury said Akash had confessed under primary interrogation that he was involved in labour leader Shahidul Islam murder. "He went into hiding at Cox's Bazar to avert arrest. Akash is being interrogated intensely."

At about 7:30pm on June 25 last, Gazipur district president of Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation Shahidul Islam was killed when he was returning after holding talks with the owners' representatives about the garment workers' due wages and festival bonuses. Later being the plaintiff, Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation's president Kalpana Akter filed a murder case with Tongi West Police Station mentioning the names of six people and accusing five to seven more unidentified people. Later, the case was handed over to Industrial Police.

Apart from police, RAB also started investigation into the case and started arresting the accused. In sequence to it, the RAB-15 Cox's Bazar office personnel conducted a raid into a hotel at Kalatoli sea beach in Cox's Bazar after Thursday midnight and arrested Akash, the No. 2 accused in the case.