AFM Mohitul Islam, complainant of the Bangabandhu murder case, has died of kidney complications at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) hospital in Dhaka. He was 63.
Mohitul, who was also the personal assistant of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, breathed his last at 2:55pm yesterday, his nephew Mahbubul Islam Pitul said.
President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, law minister Anisul Huq, roads, transports and bridges minister Obaidul Quader and several other political leaders have expressed deep shock at his death and conveyed deep sympathy to members of the bereaved family and prayed for eternal peace of the departed soul.
Mohitul leaves behind his wife, a daughter and a host of relatives, admirers and friends.
He was admitted to the hospital in May with kidney complications. Since then, most of the time he was kept in the intensive care unit (ICU). He could not be taken abroad due to his critical condition.
Doctors said his kidneys had failed completely, leading to repeated dialysis. The infection in his lungs was also critical. His brain was also becoming inactive at the end.
His first namaz-e-janaza was held at the BSMMU hospital premises at 5.30pm.
According to his last wish, he would be buried at Monirumpur village in Jessore beside the graves of his parents. “After completion of all formalities, we will take the body to Jessore to bury him as per his last wish,” said his nephew. Mohitul, also a freedom fighter, filed the Bangabandhu murder case on October 2, 1996, with Dhanmondi police station as a witness to one of the darkest and heinous crimes in Bangladesh’s political history. He was then the resident PA of the then president and was the key witness to the assassination of Bangabandhu, along with most of his family members.
The delayed trial process of the Bangabandhu murder case began after the Awami League, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, returned to power in the 1996 general elections and scrapped the infamous Indemnity Act which, till then, had protected the killers from justice.