What started as a seemingly harmless obsession with TikTok turned into a chilling tale of murder in Dhaka's Hazaribagh, where a photographer was brutally killed on May 16.

The alleged killers — all aged between 18 and 20 — were TikTok users who frequently created and shared photos and videos on the platform.

They wanted higher quality and more attractive content and they decided they needed a DSLR camera.

But instead of buying one, they plotted to snatch it from a photographer by luring him to a fake wedding programme.

The victim, Nurul Islam, had no idea he was walking into a trap. He was called in, stabbed to death before the attackers fled with his two expensive cameras.

The police revealed the details of the incident today after Hazaribagh police caught 10 suspects from different parts of Dhaka and Mymensingh.

"They wanted better videos and eye-catching photos for TikTok. Since their mobile phones couldn't deliver the quality they wanted, they became desperate to get a DSLR camera—at any cost," Masud Alam, deputy commissioner of Ramna Division Police told reporters at the DMP media centre.

Police also recovered the two cameras they had snatched away, he said.

The plan was finalized a week before the killing, after a friendly football match in the Rayerbazar area. Nayeem Ahmed, the ringleader, assured the group that he would find and lure a photographer to the scene, police officials said.

They went through Facebook pages and eventually contacted Nurul Islam, an event photographer. Claiming they were organising a wedding, the Tiktokers hired him for the job and even paid him Tk 500 in advance.

On the evening of the murder, Nurul, a resident of Motijheel AGB Colony, and his assistant Emon arrived at Sankar bus stand in West Dhanmondi, where Nayeem received them.

Pretending to take them to the wedding venue, he led them onto a battery-run rickshaw and headed toward the Jafrabad area.

Around 8:00pm, as the rickshaw reached a house named "Kshanikalay" in Rishipara, a group of youths suddenly appeared and blocked the vehicle.

Frightened, Emon managed to flee the scene. As the assailants tried to grab Nurul's camera bag, he resisted. When he refused to hand over the equipment, they attacked him with sharp weapons, leaving him critically injured. The attackers then fled with the cameras and the bag.

The nine other arrestees are Shahin Akanda alias Shahinul, Shaheen Chowkidar, Rahim Sarker, Nayan Ahmed, Ridoy Madbar, Abdur Razzak, Anwar Hossain and Arman.