Staff Reporter :
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in its internal probe report found involvement of 21 personnel of RAB-11, including its ex-commanding officer, Lt Colonel Tareque Sayeed and Major Arif Hossain, in Narayanganj seven-murder.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam submitted the report to a HC bench on Wednesday, after more than three weeks.
The four-member RAB probe body, headed by Additional Director General (administration) Aftab Uddin Ahmed, submitted the report to the Attorney General’s office on November 23, almost eight months after the killing in April this year.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the media that according to the report Tarek Sayeed and Arif Hossain were involved with the total process, starting from the abduction to the dumping of the bodies in the Shitalakkhya River.
Rana was partially involved as he took part only in whisking away the seven, he added.
The report provided names and details of the RAB personnel who were involved with the killings.
RAB initiated the inquiry on May 5 on a High Court order.
In the probe report, RAB has blamed three of its former officers– Lt Colonel Tarek Sayeed Mohammad and Major Arif Hossain and former Navy officer Lt Commander MM Rana–for the murder of seven persons in Narayanganj, including City Corporation Councillor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar.
The trio were then deputed to the elite force’s Narayanganj base.
The other RAB men found involved were SI Purnendu Bala, AB Arif Hossain, Nayak Nazim (driver), Nayeb Delwar (driver), Lance Nayak Hira Mia, Sainik Mohiuddin Munshi, Sainik Abdul Alim, Sainik Alamin, Sipahi Taiyab, Constable Shihab Uddin, Constable Alamin, Havildar Emdad, Lance Nayak Belal Hossain, Sainik Asad, Sergeant Enamul, ASI Bazlu, Havildar (driver) Nasir, and Sainik Tajul, according to the probe report.
The report, however, did not find any involvement of RAB officials posted at its headquarters.
“The battalion headquarters were not informed about the matter immediately and they came to know about it later,” said the probe report.
A HC bench comprising Justice Md Rezaul Haque and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore, after receiving the report, said further necessary order in this regard would be passed in January next.
The bench, in its observation, said that the probe report might be incomplete since some other RAB members gave confessional statement after the report was prepared.
The decomposied bodies of six abducted men, including Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar, were found floating on the River Shitalakkhya at Bandar upazila on April 30 and that of another the next day after they were all abducted from the city’s court premises by RAB men on Apr 27.
The probe report said that the abductions, murders and hiding of the bodies had taken place at several stages.
After being abducted from near the court premises, the seven people were taken blindfolded to Narsingdi before they were drugged unconscious and asphyxiated.
The bodies were then thrown in the river after slitting the abdomens, said the report.
Meanwhile, Shahjahan Ali Mollah will continue to lead the seven-member body and to complete the government’s investigation in the Narayanganj seven-murder.
Ex-additional Secretary of the Public Administration Ministry Shahjahan Mollah was made head of a seven-member probe body formed under an HC order to probe Narayanganj murders.
The team quizzed several people including Narayanganj Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy, MP Shamim Osman, RAB Director General Mokhlesur Rahman and others.
The body could not come up with a full report though seven months passed.
On Tuesday, Shahjahan was transferred to another position in the ministry and removed from the head of the committee.
In this context, the HC on Wednesday said that Shahjahan Molla will remain head of the public administration’s committee and complete the investigation into the murders.
