Staff Reporter :Narayanganj City Corporation councillor and panel mayor Nazrul Islam, whose decomposed body was recovered from the Shitalakhya river after three days of his abduction with four aides, was laid to eternal rest at the family graveyard near Sanarpar bus stand in Siddhirganj on Thursday.Earlier, millions of supporters of Nazrul Islam attended the two separate namaz-e-janazas of the NCC leader held on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway on Thursday morning. Later, the body of Nazrul was brought to the burial spot in an open-top truck over the highway.In recent months, the city of Narayanganj-a key business hub-has seen murders, abductions and forced disappearances spike significantly, for which scared residents blamed the administration’s insincerity.The latest abduction of seven persons in two separate incidents and recovery of their bodies from the Shitalakhya river have shocked the entire nation, particularly Narayanganj. Parts of the highway had been closed at various points since the abductions on Sunday as locals’ anger boiled over at the apparent indifference of the administration and law-enforcement agencies, as well as the rapid decay of law-and-order here in this business centre recently.It is to be noted that on Sunday, Nazrul Islam, also a former general secretary of Narayanganj district unit of AL’s student front BCL and former central committee member of Jubo League, and four of his aides were abducted by miscreants thought to be posing as law-enforcement officials from Fatullah. And within hours, senior lawyer at the district Judge’s Court Chandan Kumar Sarker and his driver were also abducted while on their way to Dhaka.Supporters of Nazrul after his Namaz-e-Janaza have set fire to the offices of Nur Hossain and Haji Md Yasin, the prime accused of the case over his abduction and killing. The agitated mob also went on rampage on the highway and set fire to the office of Nur Hossain, also a Ward-4 Councillor, inside the truck terminal at Shimrail and it was completely gutted. In the evening, they also vandalized and burned the office of Siddhirganj Awami League General Secretary Haji Md Yasin. Supporters of Nazrul also torched a filling station at Siddhirganj’s Mouchak and blocked the Dhaka-Chittagong highway from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning. On Friday, also a long tailback stretching several kilometres ensued on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. But rather than the rage and frustration of the past few days, the day’s closure resulted in from the people’s desire to pay their last respects to Nazrul Islam.The killers, clearly professionals, took painstaking precautions to make sure the bodies wouldn’t turn up. Not only did they weigh down each body with 24 bricks tied to the feet, they also enclosed the skulls in double-wrapped polythene, and cut out each man’s stomach to prevent the bodies from floating.
