Sacked RAB 11 commanding officer Tarek Sayeed Mohammad has confessed to killing Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam and six others “to obey a high official’s order.”
Two other officials and 30 of Tarek’s subordinates took part in the abduction and killing missions following Tarek’s instructions.
Senior Judicial Magistrate KM Mohiuddin recorded Tarek’s confession under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) yesterday.
Previously, two other sacked officials of Rapid Action Battalion – Maj Arif Hossain and Lt Comm SM Masud Rana – had given statements, confessing their involvement in the crime.
In his confession, Tarek described how and when he got physically involved in the abduction of seven people and dumping their bodies into the Shitalakkhya River, and revealed his phone communication with the killers and plotters, our correspondent in Narayanganj reports.
“Tarek Sayeed’s statement is very similar to those of his subordinates Arif and Rana. Like them he has given vivid description of the incident,” said Md Sakhawat Hossain Khan, chief of the association of lawyers in Narayanganj and a victims’ lawyer.
He, however, refused to share any details of the statement, saying he had faced trouble for talking to the media about Rana’s confession that a RAB high official named Zia had been involved in the abduction and killing plan.
At that time Sakhawat said Arif and Rana had described in details how the abduction and murders had been carried out, where the victims had been taken and killed, who had executed the murders and who had given the orders.
The two had confessed that a high official at the RAB headquarters named Zia had ordered the abduction and murders, the lawyer had told the Dhaka Tribune at that time. However, none of Arif and Rana had ascertained the identity of this person named Zia.
Several sources yesterday said Tarek had named Siddhirganj unit Awami League leader Nur Hossain as the mastermind of the whole incident who had influenced high officials at the RAB headquarters.
However, before going to the RAB headquarters, Nur had visited Tarek at his Narayanganj office to discuss the plan. The ex-commanding officer asked him to talk with the “high official” first.
After an agreement was reached, five RAB members led by Rana waited on the court premises where Nazrul had gone to attend a hearing. Nur had provided the information that Nazrul would go there.
But of the five RAB members, Kamal Uddin got caught by Nazrul’s men for spying on them. When Nazrul’s associates released Kamal, Rana and other RAB members left the court premises, said a court source.
Along with three RAB members Rana then took position in front of Fatulla Stadium on Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road where Major Arif had been waiting with his team.
After finishing work at the court, Nazrul and his four associates took the link road to go to the capital. The RAB team intercepted his car in front of the stadium and at gun point picked them on a microbus.
In his statement, Tarek said they had to beat Nazrul with the pistol as he tried to prevent the RAB members and there was a scuffle.
After all the victims were picked up, the RAB team administered injection to make them unconscious.
Tarek claimed that they did not have any plan but picked lawyer Chandan Sarker mistakenly as his car model was almost the same.
A total of 12 RAB members took part in the abduction mission. Tarek said he was not present during the kidnapping but he kept communicating with Arif and Rana over phone.
Tarek was produced before the court around 8am. The judge gave him four hours to think about making the confession. Around 12noon Tarek started giving his statement at the judge’s chamber.
Tarek first gave statement in the case filed by Nazrul Islam’s wife Selina Islam for killing Nazrul and his four associates. Then he confessed in the case filed for killing advocate Chandan Sarker and his driver. The judge sent him to jail after finishing recording the statement around 3:45pm.
On April 27, Nazrul, three of his aides and driver, and senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were kidnapped from the Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road. Three days later, six bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya. The seventh body was recovered from the river the next day.
On May 6, Tarek, Arif and Rana were sent on forced retirement over allegation of their involvement with the abduction and killing.
Meanwhile, several police sources confirmed that before going to the court Tarek had given a statement to the police under section 161 of the CrPC in the morning.
In the statement, Tarek claimed that he had had knowledge about Nazrul’s abduction and was instructing Arif and Rana from his office. After the seven people were abducted they were taken to Narsingdi. He said the plan was to kill them there, but Arif wanted to take them back to Narayanganj for the murder to avoid hassles. Tarek said he did not want to kill Chandan and his driver but Arif and Rana insisted and killed all seven without notifying Tarek.
When the seven bodies were taken to the west side of the Kachpur bridge at night Tarek scolded Arif and Rana seeing the bodies.
Later, the three former RAB officials dumped the bodies at Char Dhaleshwari under Sadar upazila’s Madanganj, Tarek said in the statement.
