A former student of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (Sust), Mahid Al Salam was on his way to Dhaka to attend a job interview.

However, some unknown men stabbed him in Sylhet's Kadamtali bus stand area around 1:00am yesterday, leaving him dead.

Mahid, son of late freedom fighter Abdus Salam, was a student of Economics department at Sust. He was also an activist of Sylhet Ganajagaran Mancha.

Quoting witnesses, Khairul Fazal, officer-in-charge of Dakshin Surma Police Station, said Mahid was travelling in a rickshaw when a group of men intercepted him. One of them stabbed the jobseeker in his thigh.

Mahid started to bleed profusely. At one point, he fainted.

The attackers fled.

The injured was rushed to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead, said the OC.

Jyotirmoy Sarkar, assistant commissioner (South Surma area) of Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP), said based on witnesses' accounts they suspected that it was a case of mugging.

After completing his Master's from Sust, Mahid started working at Banglalink and later moved to an IT company. He was on his way to Dhaka to attend a job interview, said Mahid's uncle ATM Hasan Jebul, organising secretary of Sylhet Awami League.

“Mahid was always an active voice and on March 5, he spoke at the rally in the capital's Shahbagh, protesting the brutal attack on Professor Muhammed Zafar Iqbal. He was also an organiser of Mabhoi Abritti Sangshad in Sust. It is hard to believe that he was murdered,” Aparup Das Ayon, a student of the university, said.

Doctors carried out an autopsy on Mahid's body which would be kept at the hospital morgue until his siblings return from England, Jebul said.

Abdul Wahab Miah, additional deputy commissioner of SMP, said they were raiding different places to arrest the killers.