“I need you...understand” / “lol...what?” / “I need your body...I found it very soft...like it....<heart symbol>...I don’t want no / “Kadir uncle..I’m not gay” / “Special for me you are...must / “No...sorry...sorry...not.”
This is part of a screen shot of a facebook conversation between Algerian national Abuubaida Kadir, a swimming instructor who is now in police custody, and a 14-year-old class 7 student. The Dhaka Tribune has collected 26 screen shots of Kadir’s facebook conversations from Zubair’s friends and fellows. Parts of the conversations are reproduced here.
Friends and playmates of 17-year-old Zubair Ahmed, who reportedly drowned in a shallow pond in Uttara, have been receiving screen shots of chat conversations like this one after Zubair’s mysterious death. They suspect Kadir, who is in Bangladesh illegally, used his role as a swimming coach and language teacher to prey on teenage boys.
Police say they are following new leads after discovering text messages Kadir sent to teenage boys.
The screen shot of a conversation between Kadir and the 14-year-old schoolboy seems to show Kadir in the act of trying to seduce the student.
Kadir writes: “U must...help me I need you.” The boy responds: “Stop Kadir Uncle...I’m not gay...I’m your friend.”
The conversation continues: “Don’t use this word again” / “lol...What word?”/ “For me, more than friend.”
The boy then continues: “BEST FRIEND.”
Kadir presses forward: “Y I chose you as special...to help you right?...bcz I love you. So you don’t help me?”
The boy asks: “With what!?” Kadir replies: “What can I do I love your body.”
The boy now pushes back strongly: “I don’t need this...bye...I will tell u one last time...I’m not gay.”
In another screen shot, Kadir writes to a 15-year-old boy studying in class 8 of the International Turkish Hope School.
In a conversation from August 14, Kadir says: “I love you, believe me. When I started to teach you swim, I felt something special.”
In a chat with the same schoolboy on August 23, Kadir says: “I love you...believe me...I don’t know how it happened...how it came into my heart.”
Aldeen Ahmed, a friend of Zubair, told the Dhaka Tribune that these conversations make it clear that Kadir was operating outside of acceptable social norms. He spent much of his time with teenagers in the hope of seducing them.
Md Iqbal Hossain, deputy commissioner of Uttara police, said earlier: “The police scanned the mobile phone of Kadir and found text messages sent to teenage boys in obnoxious language.”
The deputy commissioner added that police suspected that Kadir enticed teenagers to join him in water bodies, especially swimming pools.
On Saturday police produced Ismail, a key suspect in the Zubair death case, before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court.
Sheikh Rasel Kabir, sub-inspector (SI) of Uttara East police station and investigating officer of the case, placed the arrestee before the court seeking a ten-day remand for questioning.
Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Rani Chakrabarti put the arrestee on a two-day remand.