Faruk Murder: Sayedee, 103 others indicted
A Rajshahi court yesterday framed charges against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee, who is serving life term imprisonment for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, for abetting the murder of Rajshahi University student Faruk Hossain in 2010.
The court also framed charges against 103 other leaders and activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir on charges of being involved in the murder or abetting the crime.
Public prosecutor of the court Siraji Shawkat Salehin revealed the information to the journalists following the charge framing.
He said Sayeedee was taken to Rajshahi Central Jail from Kashimpur Jail for producing him before the court.
According to the charges, the court official said, Sayedee visited Rajshahi on February 7, 2010, two days before Faruk murder.
During their visit, they held a secret meeting with the leaders of Islami Chhatra Shibir and directed them to take control of Rajshahi University campus and its dormitories which Shibir leaders used to control since the BNP-Jamaat era and were seized away by Bangladesh Chhatra League men after 2008 general elections.
Acting on their directives, the Jamaat and Shibir leaders launched coordinated attacks on BCL leaders and activists at different dormitories on the night of February 9.
Several hundred Jamaat-Shibir men took part in the attacks that came in retaliation for the murder of former RU Shibir leader Sharifuzzaman Nomani on March 13, 2009 by BCL men, the court official said quoting the charges.
Faruk Hossain, a mathematics student of Rajshahi University and an activist of the university unit BCL, was killed and his body was dragged out of his room at Shah Makhdum Hall and dumped into a sewer.
At least 100 others were injured and four of them were maimed as the attackers had cut their tendons.
Former RU BCL leader Majedul Islam Apu filed a murder case accusing 35 people and hundred other with Motihar Police Station. Later, inspector Zillur Rahman filed charge sheet in the case accusing 110 people, including Nizami, Mozaheed and Sayedee.
The court exempted six of the accused following their deaths. Of them, Nizami and Mozaheed were executed after being convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal while Shaheen and Shahadat were killed in “gunfights” with law enforcers and Ataur Rahman and Abu Samah had died of illness.
Three arrested Shibir leaders gave confessional statement in the case, revealing involvement of the top Jamaat leaders for the murder, the court official said.
Abu M Selim, a lawyer of the defendants said, the charge framing was politically motivated.
The number of charged accused are “abnormally higher” than the number of accused named in the First Information Report, he added.
