Family members of slain Rajshahi University teacher Prof S Taher Ahmed have expressed their satisfaction over the hanging of the two killers of the academic.
Jamaat-e-Islami supporters Dr Miah Mohammad Mohiuddin, then a junior colleague of Prof Taher, and Jahangir Alam, the caretaker of the teachers' complex, were hanged simultaneously at 10:01pm on Thursday in Rajshahi Central Jail.
Segufta Tabassum Ahmed, a practicing lawyer at the Supreme Court and daughter of Prof Taher, said: “It's been 17 years and a half that we can't call baba (father) and touch him. No words can describe how painful it is.
“However, my father who was brutally killed and dumped in a septic tank has got justice. We've been served justice, for which we thank the Almighty."
Prof Taher, a teacher in the Geology and Mining Department at the university, went missing from his university dormitory in the evening on February 1, 2006. Detectives found the body in a manhole on February 3 based on a bus ticket inside his coat. Later they found his phone at Jahangir's house and the involvement of Mohiuddin in the crime was also revealed.
Recalling the tough days after her father's assassination, Segufta said that she along with her mother Sultana Ahmed and elder brother Sanjid Alvi Ahmed faced many adversities.
“We even faced obstacles in filing a case over the murder. We also came under political pressure. Interestingly, some police officers tried to misguide us as we proceeded to lodge the case,” she said.
“After the case proceedings began in court, Jamaat-Shibir men often threatened my brother, warning him to withdraw the case,” Segufta said.
They, according to Segufta, even threatened his life several times for violating their “order”.
“The case was very sensational and that's why many lawyers initially stopped assisting us due to many restrictions,” Segufta said.
The Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal on May 22, 2008, awarded the death penalty to four people. Others, including former RU Chhatra Shibir president Mahbubul Alam Salehi, were acquitted later.
On May 13, 2013, the High Court confirmed the capital punishment of Dr Mohiuddin and Jahangir but commuted the punishment of Salam and Nazmul to imprisonment for life.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court turned down the review petitions of the two condemned prisoners on March 2.
The apex court last week rejected the petitions, which solicited an order to halt the execution of the convicts.
Mohiuddin family skips funeral
Upon his execution, Mohiuddin was buried at his home village of Jandi under Tujerpur Union Parishad in Faridpur on Friday. However, his wife and children did not attend his funeral.
His brother Arju Miah, who received the body and was present during his burial at around 11am, said: “What that was supposed to happen, has taken place. We've nothing to say now.”
Stating that Mohiuddin's family members were ill, Arju Miah claimed that his brother was innocent.
Mohiuddin was a leader of the pro-Jamaat teachers' group at the university.
At least four teachers, including Prof Taher, of the university have been killed since 2004, during the BNP-Jamaat regime. It was a period which saw a drastic rise of Islamist radicals and militants in the country. Apart from the Jamaat-Shibir, militant and radical links were behind all the four murders.
