‘Attempts made to kill Tonu’s father’

She also alleged that Tonu’s family members had been barred from talking to the media. Anwara was addressing a human chain organised to identify, arrest and bring to justice the killers of Tonu. “Instead of capturing Tonu’s killers, law enforcement officials are watching us. Our cable TV line has been cut so that we cannot watch reports on Tonu. “A few days ago, Tonu’s father went to where her body was found and vehicles, including car and motorcycle, tried to run over him there,” the mother claimed. “We are not speaking out against the government. We are just demanding justice for the killing of our daughter. Tonu was killed as she went on a tour to Sreemangal by refusing to sing at a programme of the armed forces. The army took away her diary and all her albums from the house. Now we have nothing at home that can remind us of our daughter.” Anwara described Tonu’s post-mortem report as wrong and demanded that the doctors performing autopsy be brought to book. “Major Masud came to our house and asked why we did not return with Tonu’s sandals found beside the road without finding her. But is it possible for any parent to do so? If animals tried to eat her corpse then law enforcers would have said that she was killed by beasts. “Also, she was found dead in a jungle. If she died of a heart attack, her body would have been found on the street, not in a jungle, and it would have borne no injury,” she said. The human chain was organised by Gonojagoron Moncho’s Comilla unit at Kandirpar Pubali Chattar at noon. Tonu’s younger brother Anwar Hossain was present. General Secretary of Communist Party of Bangladesh’s Comilla unit Paresh Kar, Coordinator of Gonojagoron Moncho’s Comilla unit Khairul Anam Raihan and author Motahar Hossain Mahabub also addressed the human chain. They said more than 90 days had passed since Tonu had been killed but the criminals had not been identified yet. They called for quick identification of the killers, and also demanded that the perpetrators be subjected to legal proceedings. On the night of March 20, Tonu’s body was recovered from a jungle near her house inside Comilla cantonment. Autopsy was performed on her body twice – the second time after exhumation – and the first report, released on April 4, drew widespread criticism as it concluded that no sign of murder or rape was found. The second report was released on June 12 and it also sparked controversy.