Kadir admits to involvement in Zubair’s death

During interrogation by the police, Abuubaida Kadir admitted to involvement in the drowning death of 17-year-old Zubair Ahmed, saying he left the boy in the pond because Zubair would not listen to him, said the Detective Branch of police. A detailed motive for the killing has not yet been made known.

Further details including whether the boy was still alive and left to die in the water, or whether he was already dead when Kadir left the scene, were not made known at this time. When Zubair’s body was retrieved from the pond in Uttara’s Sector 4, its condition was reported to be incompatible with the putative timeline proposed by Kadir’s account. The body did not show as much water damage as would have been expected if his timeline were accurate.

The sole eyewitness to the murder, in a Section 164 statement before the court, said Zubair was the victim of sexual assault by Kadir. The post-mortem report, which is not yet ready, will shed light on whether the boy was the victim of rape or attempted rape. It will also clarify the victim’s time of death.

Kadir is being treated as the prime suspect in Zubair’s murder in a case filed by the victim’s mother Dilara Begum.

Police said their case would not be based only on the suspect’s statements, especially since Kadir was prone to changing his account.

Investigators are trying to collect more evidence and information about Kadir’s involvement in the murder as well as investigating his illegal stay in Bangladesh, said SM Nazmul Haque, senior assistant commissioner at the DB.

Investigators have been able to determine that Kadir came to Bangladesh a decade and a half ago on a student visa.

“We have documents showing that Kadir is an Algerian citizen who came to Bangladesh in 1998 to get a degree in Information Technology from Darul Ihsan University,” Nazmul told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

Kadir’s student visa expired in 2001 but he never went back to Algeria. Instead, he destroyed his passport and other documents and lived in Bangladesh illegally. Kadir lead a mysterious life and rarely left the capital’s Uttara neighbourhood, the assistant commissioner said.

He said police were looking into whether Kadir was involved in serious crimes which caused him to avoid returning to Algeria and to frequently shift his place of residence in Dhaka. Kadir identified himself as a Bangladeshi so that no one would suspect him, he said.

“We are confused about his suspicious attitude and his contradictory statements about his activities while living in Bangladesh for the last 15 years,” Nazmul said. “We have contacted the Algerian embassy in Pakistan but have not yet received a response from them.”

Assitant Commissioner Nazmul said Kadir was proficient in three languages – Arabic, French and English. Kadir told police he made a good livelihood tutoring children in languages. He also worked at a number of private educational institutes as a children’s football trainer, said the DB official.

Kadir was first implicated in the murder of Zubair Ahmed on October 10 after the sole eyewitness, a 17-year-old boy, told police in remand that Kadir had pushed Zubair forcefully into the water as the two stood inside a shallow Uttara pond.

The eyewitness repeated this account in a confessional statement yesterday to Metropolitan Magistrate Md Emdadul Haque of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.

In the confessional statement, the witness said he left the scene with Kadir after the incident. He did not say whether he tried to help Zubair during the drowning or afterwards. He claimed that Kadir had told him to keep his mouth shut and that was why he did not come forward immediately. In an earlier statement to police, the eyewitness also claimed that Kadir offered to help him go abroad if he kept quiet about the killing.

After the hearing, the court sent the witness to jail.

A Section 164 statement, made before a magistrate, is the final pre-trial statement made by a suspect and is usually attached to the chargesheet when formal charges are pressed.