Narayanganj City Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy is trying to protect someone by blaming the so-called ‘godfathers’ for the seven murders, local MP Shamim Osman has alleged.
The Awami League leader also expressed doubt over the manner in which the bodies were found floating in the Shitalakhyya River even after the abductors dumped them ‘cutting their stomachs and tying up bricks on the corpses’.
He thinks the motive behind the killings might have been to destabilise the country.
Nur Hossain, who was the vice-president of the ruling party’s Siddhirganj unit at that time, was ‘somehow’ involved with the multiple murders, Osman claimed.
He said Ivy alleged the ‘godfathers were involved’ even after the arrested former RAB officials had confessed to their crimes in court.
“I think she is trying to save someone despite the confessional statements (of the RAB men) under Section 164,” he said.
Osman was speaking to reporters on Tuesday after emerging from an interrogation by the public administration ministry’s probe committee on the murders at the Secretariat.
Starting from 11:30am, investigators quizzed Osman for almost two and a half hours at the office of the enquiry body’s convener and the ministry’s Additional Secretary Shahjahan Ali Molla.
Molla told reporters that Osman was interrogated as ‘a local MP and witness’.
The Awami League leader cooperated with them and gave various ‘advices’, he added.
Seven men – Narayanganj City Corporation panel mayor and Ward-2 Councillor Nazrul Islam, his friends ‘Swapan’, Tajul Islam, ‘Liton’ and car driver Jahangir Alam, and the district’s senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar and his driver ‘Ibrahim’ – were abducted on Apr 27.
Several days later, all of their bodies were found floating in the river.
Following the abduction, Nazrul’s family had filed a case naming local AL leader and Ward-4 Councillor Nur Hossain as the prime accused. After the bodies were found, it became a murder case.
Nazrul’s father-in-law Shahidul Islam had alleged that Hossain paid RAB officials Tk 60 million to murder the seven.
Hossain had rejected the allegations at first, but he went off the radar after the bodies were recovered. Later in June, he was arrested at Kolkata’s Baguiati along with two others.
A mobile-phone conversation between Shamim Osman and Hossain, which took place before the latter fled to Kolkata, became public in May and created much hullaballoo in the country.
Osman had also admitted talking to the man, who is now in jail in Kolkata pending investigation and remand.
‘Ivy is a corrupt woman’
After being questioned by the probe team on Monday, Mayor Ivy told reporters that the ‘godfathers of Narayanganj’ were ‘directly and indirectly’ involved in the sensational seven murders.
Asked who these godfathers were, she said, “The whole country knows who these godfathers of Narayanganj are. There is no need to name them here.”
Regarding her allegation, Shamim Osman told reporters, “She did not take my name this time. At first she had been taking my name a lot. And now she is mentioning godfathers. She won’t be saying that too in future.”
The MP termed Ivy ‘a corrupt woman’ and said, “I don’t even consider her important.”
Osman said, “By godfathers, if she meant me or us (the MP’s family), she should have presented evidence before the investigators.”
He claimed that Nur Hossain was someone from his party but he was not ‘one of his men’.
Rather, Ivy was the one who supported Hossain and put him in big posts, he alleged.
“(She) tried to make it look like Nur Hossain was my man. Ask her who she is trying to save.”
The Awami League MP, who is a member of the influential Osman family of Narayanganj, threw a challenge saying he could prove ‘anytime’ that Ivy was ‘corrupt’.
‘Nur Hossain involved’
Osman admitted that it was his voice on the audio tape wherein his conversation over a mobile phone with Hossian was recorded.
But the clip which became public was ‘incomplete’, he said.
“He (Nur Hossain) said, ‘You’re like my father, I’m not educated, Please forgive me, brother’… his words prove that I did not give him shelter.”
“Later during the conversation I had asked him to surrender, but that part was not in that (audio) clip.”
Asked whether he thought Hossain was involved in the multiple murders, Osman said, “I think he was involved somehow, either before or after (the killings).”
Nur Hossain should be brought back to country and questioned, he added. “I would have done it today if I had the power.”
‘Plot to destabilise state’
When asked about being questioned by the committee, the ruling party MP said, “I said within an hour of the incident that there was more to it than meets the eye. One or two officers of the security force had engineered it. My words have come true.”
How could be so sure in just about an hour’s time? “Not one hour; I came to everything within half an hour. That happens to be my electoral constituency. I know even the lunatics in my constituency.
“Ordinary people first inform the local leader. When protectors turn predators, it only natural that people will come to me,” said Osman.
He claimed that the committee had thanked him for his “brave” statement.
Shamim said he had also advised it about measures to prevent such extra-judicial killings in future.
He wondered how all seven corpses had surfaced together, though bricks were tied to their bodies.
He feared that the killing might have been carried out in an attempt to “destabilise” the state.
Following allegations of RAB’s involvement in the seven murders, RAB-11 chief Lt Col Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, Maj Arif Hossain, and Lt Commander AM Rana were promptly forced to retire.
After their arrest, they gave confessional statements to the court ‘admitting’ their ‘crime’.
It was also alleged that the then Additional Director General of RAB, Col Ziaul Ahsan, had prior knowledge of the crime.
The committee formed by the public administration ministry has questioned him also.
‘Let Twaki murder be probed’
About the presence of a godfather in Narayanganj, Shamim Osman expressing surprise said, “RAB killed the men, my men were killed, and we are the Godfather!”
He said he did not know what ‘godfather’ meant. “The word was coined by a paper. You know best whether there is a godfather.”
He claimed that people in Narayanganj were as safe as they were elsewhere in Bangladesh.
“Narayanganj is safer than many other places. As for killings, they take place in Washington DC, too.”
Shamim said Mayor Ivy had tried to implicate him to the Twaki murder also. “I am appealing to the High Court in your presence (journalists) that the Twaki murder must be probed like this one.”
‘Truth will be revealed’
After Shamim Osman’s questioning, probe team convener and public administration ministry’s Additional Secretary Shahjahan Ali Molla told reporters that the sensitive issue had shocked them.
“The investigation is progressing. We will finish very soon. The report will be submitted after we reveal the truth.”
He also said Osman’s full cooperation during the questioning had satisfied the investigation committee.
“You should remember that he is an MP. He knows the details of the area. That’s why we questioned him and took suggestions from him,” Molla said.
Asked whether they questioned the lawmaker about his involvement in the seven murders, he said that was a part of their investigation too.
The government formed this committee on May 7 following a High Court order.
The team will try to find out whether any local administration official or law keepers were either directly or indirectly involved in the abductions and murders.
The court has also asked the committee to look into possible negligence by any law enforcement agency in rescuing the abductees.
The investigators have questioned and interviewed over 350 people including top officials of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
They are supposed to submit their final report to the court on Sept 9.
The team has already submitted its progress reports in the High Court several times, saying they had identified those behind the murders.
Source: Bd news24