Home Minister: Babul not under surveillance

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said Police Superintendent Babul Akter is not under surveillance. He made the statement at a programme Narcotics Control Department held in Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon. When asked if Babul was under surveillance, the minister said: “No.” Replying to a query about Babul's involvement with the murder, Kamal said: “We have not made so much progress in the investigation to comment about the matter.” Earlier, the minister had said Babul was taken to the Detective Branch office in Kakrail to verify the arrests. On Friday midnight, SP Babul was picked up from his father-in-law’s house by police and kept at the DB office for almost 15 hours. Amid the media frenzy that ensued, some news outlets published reports saying Babul himself was involved in the murder. Some of these reports were retracted later. Babul's wife Mahmuda Khanom Mitu, 32, was stabbed and shot dead by three men in GEC intersection area in Chittagong while she was taking her son to his school bus on June 5, the same day her husband was supposed to report at the Police Headquarters as the newly promoted SP. Babul filed a case against three unidentified persons and their cohorts with Panchlaish police station the next day. No local or international militant group has claimed responsibility for the murder, but the investigators suspect that members of Chittagong-based militant outfits, especially Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, or other vested groups may have conducted the murder to avenge the crackdowns led by Babul when he was in the Detective Branch of police.