When RAB claimed that Professor Shafiul Islam was killed over an incident of harassing a female employee of the Rajshahi University, the local police was not convinced.
When the six people – mostly belonging to BNP’s youth front Jubo Dal – arrested by RAB told media that they had committed the crime, police said there must be some connection of Jamaat-Shibir because the professor had a feud with them over political ideologies.
However, only a day later the six RAB arrestees refused to confess before magistrates and the female employee said she did not know the professor, Rajshahi police yesterday said they were now going to follow RAB’s lead.
Mohammad Shamsuddin, the new commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP), yesterday said: “We are [now] giving priority to RAB’s findings. Like RAB, we have also found proof that Prof Shafiul might have been killed over a personal matter.”
Briefing reporters in his office yesterday, the new RMP boss also said: “We have narrowed down the investigation and following the lead into his personal conflict [in connection with the female employee]. However, we are still giving priority to some other issues as well.”
When asked why they had moved away from blaming Jamaat-Shibir for the murder, RMP Additional Commissioner Sardar Tamizuddin gave an oblique answer. “People who have idea about how things work in Rajshahi University, they must know. Be it Chhatra League or Chhatra Dal or Chhatra Shibir, everybody knows who pull the strings from inside and behind,” he said.
Only a day before, the RMP commissioner said RAB’s theory was just another clue and they were checking the lead into the Facebook page of Ansar Al Islam Bangladesh-2, an organisation that claimed responsibility for the murder.
Even the 11 that were arrested by the Rajshahi police so far are involved with the politics of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student body Chhatra Shibir.
On Sunday, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said Rajshahi Jubo Dal leader Abdus Samad Pintu had confessed to them that he had enacted the killing because the RU teacher misbehaved his wife Nasrin Akther Reshma.
Reshma, who is absconding in the police list, claimed in an exclusive interview with the Dhaka Tribune that she did not know Shafiul – the alleged harassment was just a theory.
The Dhaka Tribune reporter yesterday talked to Ashraf Ud-Daula, director of finance and accounts section of RU.
He said a total of 16 employees, including Nasrin, work under him. They all sit together in one room. “But neither Nasrin, nor any of the other employees has ever reported any such incident [of misbehaviour] to me or to anyone else.”
Regarding the two people arrested in Bogra for their affiliation with the Facebook page of Ansar Al Islam, RMP Commissioner Shamsuddin said: “We have already learned that they got active on the Facebook page following instruction from another person, who is a former president of a local unit of Shibir.”
RMP Deputy Commissioner AKM Nahidul Islam said in yesterday’s briefing: “We have sought cooperation from Bogra district police in arresting the person upon whose order the Ansar Al Islam page had been created.”
Asked what they would now do with the six RAB arrestees who had refused to confess before court, RMP Commissioner Shamsuddin said: “The courts have sent them to jail. If needed, we will take them on remand or interrogate at jail gate.”
Meanwhile, a RAB official yesterday recovered a battery-powered autorickshaw from Rajshahi which was allegedly used by the killers.
Mirza Golam Sarowar, the RAB 5 official, said: “Ibrahim Khalil alias Tokai Babu, who was arrested by RAB, is basically an autorickshaw driver. During the interrogation, he told us that he transported some of the killers from the Rajshahi Railway Station to the Chouddopai area on the day of the murder.”
On November 15, armed assailants killed RU Sociology Professor AKM Shafiul in front of his house in the Chouddopai area near the university campus. He is the third teacher of the university killed in eight years. Jamaat-Shibir have been largely blamed for the previous two murders.
RAB and Police have so far arrested and detained 22 people, including the two in connection with the Facebook page.
Police took 11 of the arrestees on remand twice. However, the six other detainees picked up from Bogra, including the machete makers, are yet to be shown arrested, although they had been detained more than 48 hours.