Relatives at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue yesterday identified two youths out of the three allegedly beaten to death by an angry mob in the capital’s Mirpur area on Monday.
Police said the three were arsonists who an angry mob caught red-handed while hurling petrol bombs in the capital’s Mirpur area.
Later police brought their bullet-hit bodies to the DMCH morgue early Monday.
One of them was Robin, 14, son of Selim Mia living at Kalshi slum in Mirpur and another was Sumon Robi Das, 17, son of Robi Das, a cobbler, from the same area.
They were friends and neighbors. Police in the inquest report stated their ages as 20 and 19 respectively.
Family members of the third youth did not come to the morgue for his body until evening yesterday.
However, police in a primary investigation identified the youth as Jewel,19, son of Aminul Islam of Bogra district.
The family members of the two claimed that a man called them from their homes in the afternoon of Sunday. They worked as bus and leguna helpers.
They did not have any political affiliation or any complaint with any police station, they claimed.
But Mirpur police following the incident said the victims and some of their cohorts gathered in front of Krishibid Bhaban at Kazipara to hurl petrol bombs and crude bombs on vehicles around 11pm on Sunday.
Some people around the place chased them to Baish Bari area and caught them in an alley. They beat and shot them leaving them critically injured. Later police recovered petrol bombs and crude bombs from the spot.
Moinul Islam, OC (investigation) of Mirpur police, said they suspected that someone in the mob might have shot them after beating up. Police filed a case accusing around 150 locals in this connection.
The youths did not have any major injury marks of beating but their bodies were riddled with a total of 54 bullet marks in the chest, abdomen, waist, hands, arms, back and legs, morgue sources said.
On Monday morning, at the spot they were killed locals saw marks of blood on the road and a wall. More than 10 shells of bullets of different guns were found lying around.
There was also a long blood-stained rope on the spot. Police dumped the rope in the noon when some journalists went to see the spot.
Yesterday after identifying the body Robin’s grandmother Halima Begum, who works as contractual house-help at several apartments, told reporters on the morgue premises that Robin used to work either as helper of local bus of Mirpur-Gulisthan route or leguna of Kalshi-Purobi route.
“He went out from home around 6am on Sunday to join a leguna driver. He came back in the evening. A hermaphrodite came to our house and called him out. Robin said he would come back shortly,” she said.
Sumon’s mother Josna Robi Das also said that the hermaphrodite, whose name they did not know but had seen him around occasionally, took Sumon from home at the same time.
Robin had been with his grandmother since he was seven after his father married again following the death of Robin’s mother. “He used to earn Tk 150-200 a day and ran our expenses,” said a widow Halima who has a minor boy living with him.
As Robin and Sumon were intimate friends, Robin sometimes took Sumon to their village home at Sujanagar in Pabna.
“When Robin and Sumon were not coming home on Sunday night we thought they had gone to Pabna. But their phones were switched off. The next morning we called our relatives in Pabna and they said Robin and Sumon did not go there,” she said.
Yesterday both of the family members went to the morgue seeing photos of them which were published in the newspaper.
However, locals and neighbours said apart from their profession, the teens used to go to the processions and programmes of both the ruling party and the BNP.
They did this for money. Local leaders gave them and some other youths of their age Tk200 and a meal for attending such programs. But they have no idea if the victims were involved in any subversive activities.
A shopkeeper at Baish Bari area, where they lived, seeking anonymity said he saw Robin and Sumon with another youth Roni to step out of a video game shop around 5pm on Sunday. They have not seen them around since then.
They also said that they knew Jewel who was a friend of them. But locals did not know much about him as he came to the area 3-4 months back.
“As they did some political works in exchange for money, they might have made some enemies or got noticed by the cops for their objectionable works,” said a neighbor of Robin and Sumon on condition to be unnamed.
Locals also said they heard sounds of bullets around 10pm but did not see the incident of firing on Sunday night. Some claimed to see around 10 armed people in plain cloths entering the alley and stayed there for around an hour.
Md Salauddin Khan, officer-in-charge of Mirpur Police Station said they were trying to arrest the accused and seize the arms which were used to kill the three.