Funeral held for Bangladeshi tenant allegedly killed by landlord in Bronx

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Members of the Bangladeshi community, family and friends gathered at a mosque in the Parkchester section of the Bronx Feb. 24 to pay their final respects to the tenant who police say was stabbed to death by his landlord. 44-year-old Zakir Khan was killed, according to police, over a rent dispute with his landlord. Fifty-one-year-old Taha Mahran is charged with second-degree murder in connection to the case, news12 reported.

Khan’s family was upstairs in their home and heard his screams for help. It happened just after sunset on a quiet block in the Throgs Neck section, right in front of the victim’s 12-year-old son who witnesses say screamed in horror.

A New York Daily News report describes Khan as a well-known realtor who served the tight knit Bengali community in the east Bronx. A father of three, he contributed heavily to his mosque before, friends say, he fell on hard times and lost his business. That’s why he was renting there in the first place. And, apparently, why he fell behind.

Six days before the fatal confrontation, Mahran sent a text to a woman who claims his tenant once stalked her. The landlord wanted the woman’s help getting Khan booted from the building. A teary Nasreen Ahmed, who had an order of protection against Khan, recalled that Mahran asked her to testify at an eviction hearing against her accused harasser, the Daily News reported.

The morning of his death, Khan reportedly made a Manhattan court appearance on charges of harassing legal consultant Ahmed – including threats, demands for cash and repeated phone calls made last year. Khan then returned to the Bronx, where he was stabbed to death as his son Eklel looked on, sources said.

The boy stared as enraged landlord Mahran grabbed Khan by the jacket, pulled him to the ground and started furiously plunging a kitchen knife into his neck, head and torso, sources told the Daily News. When Mahran took a few steps toward Eklel, the boy ran back inside and locked the door before telling his mother to call for help, the sources said.