Killing of BCL?leader Arju in �shootout�
Complaint against RAB
A complaint has been filed against three members of RAB-2, including its commanding officer, at the chief metropolitan magistrates court in connection with the killing of Chhatra League leader Arju in the citys Hazaribagh area. After hearing, the magistrate yesterday set August 25 for the next hearing to decide whether the complaint would be accepted as a regular case or not. RAB director (media and legal wing) Commander Mufti Mahmood Khan termed the complaint a legal process. A complaint has been lodged against RAB members at the magistrates court. The issue will be resolved through a legal process, he added. Around half a dozen people, mostly belonging to the ruling Awami League or its front organisations, were killed in separate gunfights in the last one week, raising eyebrows in political quarters and civil society. After the killing of BCL leader Arju on August 18, local MP Fazle Noor Taposh had claimed that the student leader did not die in a gunfight. Rather, he was caught, taken away and
killed, he had said. Arju was the prime accused in the killing of Raja, a boy who was allegedly tortured to death by him and his associates at Ganaktuli on August 17 over the theft of a cellphone.
Masud Rana, brother of Arju, filed the case against the three RAB members at the court of Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Shahriar Mahmud Adnan yesterday morning. The three accused RAB-2 personnel are: commanding officer Colonel Masud Rana, deputy assistant director Shahinur Rahman and inspector Wahid.
Informant Ratan has also been named in the case.
Magistrate Shahriar Mahmud Adnan has recorded the complaint, said advocate Azimuddin Shimul, lawyer of the plaintiff.
Arju, ex-president of the Hazaribagh thana unit of BCL, was killed in a gunfight between his associates and members of RAB-2 in the citys Hazaribagh area. RAB sources said a team of RAB-2 had arrested Arju from the Hazaribagh area on August 17 midnight.
The sources also said when the RAB team was going to an operation along with Arju to arrest his associates, some miscreants tried to snatch away the BCL leader from the forces custody near Mannan Principals house at Boraikhal in Hazaribagh area around 3:30am on August 18. The miscreants fired at the elite force and the RAB personnel retaliated in which Arju sustained bullet injuries, they added.
At one stage, the miscreants fled the scene and the RAB team recovered two foreign-made pistols and three rounds of bullets from the spot. Arju was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries around 5:30am.
It may be mentioned that another ruling party activist, Ajibor, accused of shooting a baby in her mothers womb in Magura, was killed in a gun battle with police on Tuesday. Saidur Rahman, accused of committing murders in Dhakas Badda, was killed in an alleged encounter with the Detective Branch at Gazipur on Friday. Awami League activist Zakir Hossain was killed in a shootout with police early yesterday.
Zakir was allegedly involved in the August 15 infighting in Kushtia that left AL activist Sabuj dead.
Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, MP, has lashed out at law enforcement agencies after the killing of Arju. Attending Arjus qulkhani in Dhaka on Saturday, Taposh underscored the need for reshuffling RAB. The RAB was formed during the tenure of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government. Law enforcement under the Sheikh Hasina-led administration cant be run with it, he said.
He also said that if anyone gets injured or killed in the custody of any law enforcement agency, the agency concerned will have to take the responsibility for that. So the RAB cant avoid the responsibility of killing Arju, he added.
On August 20, law minister Anisul Huq said a judicial inquiry might be launched into the incidents of recent gunfight deaths.
Suranjit Sengupta, a member of the Awami League advisory council, said, The Awami League is in power and Chhatra League leaders are getting killed. This is not right.
