It has been 11 years since Ganotantri Party President and labour rights leader Nurul Islam, and his son Tomohor Islam alias Puchi, 35 died in a mysterious house fire - the cause of which is yet to be fully determined.
On December 3, 2008 a fire engulfed the house of Awami League-led grand alliance candidate from Noakhali 1, Nurul Islam for the 9th general election He suffered 40% burns on his body and eventually succumbed to his injuries while his son died in the fire at home in Lalmatia.
His wife Rubi Rahman and daughter Moutushi Islam were not at home during the incident.
Police and fire brigade said an electrical short circuit caused a refrigerator compressor to explode, igniting the fire that killed the duo.
But a report of Dhaka Power Distribution Company said no short circuit occurred in the flat in question.
A team of Dhaka University’s chemistry department also found no trace of an electrical short circuit.
According to his family, Nurul and Tamohar had been receiving phone calls and text messages from unknown numbers urging them to withdraw his candidacy.
“The callers used to ask Nurul to quit the polls,” said Rubi Rahman, the politician’s widow.
They would also ask Tamohar to tell his father to withdraw his candidacy, said Rubi calling their deaths a “political killing”.
Three of the victim’s cell phones went missing from their apartment after the fire.
Mohammadpur police first started the investigation, after an unnatural death case was filed on December 6, 2008 over their deaths.
While Islam was at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) he spoke to reporters before losing consciousness, saying: "Unidentified persons were asking me over mobile phone to come to the path of Allah, and not to take part in the election."
He was later shifted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) where he passed away.
The case was later taken over the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police who was tasked with the probe in 2009. After the victims’ family expressed “no confidence” in the CID’s report, a Dhaka court on June 13, 2013 ordered a re-investigation.
The family members again filed a “no confidence” petition, causing the court to transfer the case to the Rapid Action Battalion in 2014.
Their case has been shifting from one agency to another, as several units of police failed to reach a conclusion and submit a charge-sheet over the unnatural death case. Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) is now in charge of the investigation since January 1, 2018, with its Inspector Nasir Uddin made the investigation officer.
Inspector Nasir Uddin could not be reached over the phone, despite repeated calls by Dhaka Tribune.
A premeditated murder?
Nurul Islam was heading to Noakhali, when he was called back to Dhaka by a phone call. “He got a call saying that he was a loan defaulter of Sonali Bank at its Badakhali branch in Cox’s Bazar. But he never had any account with that bank,” said his wife.
Had he not been called back to Dhaka, Nurul could have escaped the fire, she said, adding: “It was all done only to kill him.”
Rubi said that Sonali Bank authorities could easily find out who the caller was.
Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) examining the substances found around the exploded compressor in the fridge that originated the fire and found toxic chemicals-Arsine and Osmium.
Arsine is a poisonous gas smelling slightly of garlic, made by the reaction of some arsenides with acids while Osmium is a hard, brittle, chemical element with bluish-white transition metal in the platinum group that is found as a trace element in alloys, mostly in platinum ores.
“We just wonder how the chemicals remained in compressor for three years before it went off?” Rubi questioned.
Moutushi, his daughter said caretaker Rabiul Alam of the building took the keys to its main gate, from her father just three days before the fire, which still seems mysterious.
She also suspected that Ganotantri Party leader Kamal Pasha, and HM Ibrahim, the Awami League lawmaker from Noakhali 1 constituency, were among the masterminds of the fire incident meant to kill her father and brother.
Alleging that Dhaka North City Ward Councillor Habibur Rahman Mizan is linked to the murder, a relative of Nurul, seeking anonymity, said he in collusion with others could have planned the fire incident.
“For nearly three years after the incident, he never showed up despite our repeated attempts to reach him,” they said.
He is currently in jail in a casino case.
“We tried to name him in the case, but the investigation officer of Mohammadpur police station refused to register his name,” said Nurul’s relative.
PBI Dhaka Metro South SP Md Shahadat Hossain told a Bangla daily that Mizan’s involvement in the fire incident was not clear yet. “We will definitely consider him as a suspect if confirmed (by the IO),” he was quoted as saying, assuring that the investigation will end soon.