A gangland power base in Khulna
By the late 1990s, Ershad Shikdar had become a notorious criminal and political figure in Khulna. Contemporary reporting described a network involved in violence, extortion and organized crime, with an ice factory and the Skidghat area repeatedly appearing in murder prosecutions tied to him and his associates.
Later retellings often assign a single spectacular victim count to Shikdar. The surviving court-era reports are more complicated: multiple cases were tried separately, different defendants received different outcomes, and some prosecutions were still pending when he was executed. For that reason this archive does not convert press estimates into confirmed murders.
The murder of Khalid Hossain
The conviction that ultimately sent Shikdar to the gallows concerned the murder of Jubo League leader Khalid Hossain. The Daily Star reported that Khalid was killed at Skidghat on May 16, 1999. A Khulna special court sentenced Shikdar to death on April 30, 2000.
The judgment survived appellate review. The High Court upheld the conviction, and Bangladesh's Supreme Court later dismissed Shikdar's review petition. In April 2004, President Iajuddin Ahmed rejected his request for clemency.
Multiple murder cases, not one proven victim total
Khulna jail records reported in April 2004 said Shikdar had received death sentences in six of 17 murder cases and life terms in five, while 20 other cases were still pending. That record demonstrates the scale of the criminal litigation without proving every larger victim total later repeated in popular accounts.
The distinction matters. One later Supreme Court proceeding, for example, acquitted two of Shikdar's associates in the murder of Joynal Sheikh even though earlier courts had convicted them. Shikdar himself had also been a death-row defendant in that case, but the acquittals show why individual prosecutions should not be flattened into an unquestioned list of perpetrators and victims.
Final review and execution
After the Supreme Court review failed and the presidential mercy petition was rejected, Khulna jail scheduled the execution for the night of May 10, 2004. Contemporary coverage documented the final security preparations and reported afterward that Shikdar had been hanged in Khulna District Jail.
This case file therefore treats the Khalid Hossain murder conviction as final and adjudicated. It does not claim that every other murder attributed to Shikdar reached the same procedural endpoint before his death.
Timeline
May 16, 1999: Jubo League leader Khalid Hossain is killed at Skidghat in Khulna.
April 30, 2000: a Khulna court sentences Ershad Shikdar to death for Khalid's murder.
March 2004: the Supreme Court dismisses Shikdar's review petition after the High Court had upheld the judgment.
April 2004: President Iajuddin Ahmed rejects Shikdar's mercy petition.
May 2004: Shikdar is executed in Khulna District Jail.
October 2004: the Appellate Division acquits two associates in a separate murder prosecution, underscoring that outcomes differed across the broader set of cases.
Current status
The adjudicated Khalid Hossain murder case is Solved / Adjudicated. Shikdar's death sentence was upheld through final judicial review, clemency was denied and the sentence was carried out in May 2004. The wider historical record includes numerous other convictions and allegations, but this page does not present all reported victims as a single judicially confirmed total.
Sources
- The Daily Star — final-review history, Khalid Hossain conviction, jail record of Shikdar's murder cases and execution schedule
- The Daily Star — presidential rejection of the mercy petition and confirmation that High Court and Supreme Court had upheld the judgment
- The Daily Star — Khulna jail's final execution preparations
- The Daily Star — later Supreme Court acquittals in a separate murder case and confirmation of Shikdar's execution for Khalid Hossain's murder