The Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] headquarters has categorically denied issuing any arrest order for Nazrul Islam, Councillor of Narayanganj City Corporation, who was kidnapped, murdered and dumped in the Shitalakkhya River along with six others in April last.Like Councillor Nazrul, the six others, including renowned lawmaker Chandan Sarkar, were also kidnapped and killed at the same time by a RAB team led by the then Commanding Officer of battalion-11 Lt Colonel Tareque Sayeed Mohammad [posted in Narayanganj]. “The crime busting elite force’s headquarters was not aware earlier about the murder of the seven people in Narayanganj …. So, it does not want acquittal of any of its man involved in any criminal activities,” Mokhlesur Rahman, Director General of RAB, told a press briefing on Sunday at the RAB HQ in Dhaka. The DG’s statement came at a time when a section of media raised allegations against the RAB HQ that Additional Director General of RAB [Operations] Col. Ziaul Ahsan had ordered to arrest Nazrul Islam in March. Refuting the allegation, the DG said, “Usually, the RAB HQ does not issue arrest order against any specific person. It asks to take action about a particular matter after scrutinising information given by the commanding officers. It is battalion commanders’ decision who will be arrested or not. The RAB HQ has nothing to do with it.” “The RAB HQ had provided assistance to unearth the fact after gathering information and also helped police to arrest the accused [of the seven-murder]. There was no secret… So, I urge the media not to put blame on the whole force. Instead, they can write about the accused specifically,” he said.Issuing caution, he further said, “The RAB is an organization of the state. If it faces any loss, the people of the country will also have to suffer.”Meanwhile, referring to the confessional statement given by Lt. Col. Tareq Mohammed, the media recently ran report that Col. Ziaul Ahsan had issued the arrest order in March to Lt. Col. Tareq Sayeed Mohammed and Councillor Nazrul was killed after abduction in the next month of April. “Another accused, former Deputy CO of RAB-11 Major Arif Hossain in his confessional statement said that Col. Tareq had ordered the ‘removal’ of seven who had been detained, including eyewitnesses,” the media report said, adding that it was Nur Hossain, another councillor of Narayanganj, who had provided the RAB men with detailed information about Nazrul. “Major Arif, in his confessional statement, said that after the seven persons had been ‘removed’, Col. Zia had ordered that informant Nur Hossain to be killed too,” the report added.On April 27, Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, his three associates and driver were abducted from Fatullah area in Narayanganj city. Hours into their abduction, senior lawyer of the Narayanganj District Judge’s Court, Chandan Kumar Sarker, and his driver were abducted on their way to capital Dhaka.The bodies of the abducted persons were found floating on the Shitalakkhya River at Narayanganj’s Bandar Upazila a few days after they went missing.Tareque Sayeed, the former CO of RAB-11 and Major Arif Hossain, former Deputy CO of RAB-11, are among 26 arrested in connection with the seven-murder. Of them, 14 arrestees including Sayeed and Arif, have given confessional statements admitting their roles in the seven-murder after abduction.Later, a case was filed with the concerned police station accusing Awami League leader and Ward-4 Councillor Nur Hossain as the prime suspect. Nazrul’s father-in-law Shahidul Islam alleged that Nur Hossain had paid Tk 6 crore to RAB members to commit the murders.West Bengal police on June 14 arrested Nur Hossain with two of his associates from a Kolkata apartment near Netaji Subhash Chandra Basu International Airport.
