Shahidul Islam

The son of a powerful Awami League lawmaker brokered the deal with some Rab men to kill Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, Nazrul's father-in-law Shahidul Islam has claimed.
The MP's son acted on behalf of Narayanganj ward-4 Councillor Nur Hossain, the prime accused in the sensational abduction and murder case.   
Shahidul said a double agent had disclosed to him the plot to kill Nazrul for Tk 6 crore. The money was paid to the killers about a week before the abduction of Nazrul and his four aides on April 27 and their subsequent killing.
Information regarding this transaction was communicated to the government through Narayanganj AL lawmaker Shamim Osman after the abduction, he added.
The Narayanganj issue was discussed in the cabinet meeting yesterday.
However, The Daily Star could not independently verify Shahidul's claims and therefore kept from naming the MP and his son.
The agent, an ally of Nur Hossain, told Shahidul that the murder deal was finalised in a clandestine meeting a week before the abduction.
This agent, who also maintains close links with Shahidul, claimed he was at the meeting.
Four days before the abduction, the agent informed Shahidul of the plot and asked him to send Nazrul into hiding.
“As Nazrul was already getting death threats and was already staying outside his area for over two months, I did not pay much attention to the warning," he told The Daily Star.
He said the AL MP whose son made the deal with Rab members holds a cabinet post.
According to the agent, Nur Hossain, Haji Yasin and Hasmat Ali, three top accused in the case, held the meeting.
Hasmat is Shahidul's younger brother, who turned into a close ally of Nur Hossain, following a family dispute.
Shahidul first made the stunning allegation on Sunday that some Rab members had killed Nazrul in exchange for Tk 6 crore from Nur Hossain and the other accused.
Contacted, Rab Legal and Media Wing Director Habibur Rahman said the force was being implicated in the crime with an ill motive.
"The investigation is underway. The probe will reveal who is responsible for what," he said on Sunday night.
Shahidul said some workers witnessed the abductions near Shibu Market at Ring Road in Narayanganj.
On the day, Nazrul and his four aides -- Tajul, Liton, Swapan and Jahangir -- and senior lawyer Chandan Sarker and his driver Ibrahim were kidnapped separately, but around the same time after they came out of the court area in two cars.
Six bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya river three days later and another the next day.
Police suspect a single group was behind the crime, while Nazrul's wife Selina Islam said Nur Hossain was responsible for the kidnap and the killing.
Shahidul said he went to the Rab-11 headquarters in Adamjee to report the abduction soon after he came to know it from the eyewitnesses, but the commanding officer (CO) kept him confined for six hours there and quizzed him.
He and Selina, his daughter, also went to Fatullah Police Station to file a case against Rab men, including its CO, but the police refused to take the case.
The next day, Selina lodged an abduction case against Nur Hossain, Haji Yasin Mia, Hasmat Ali, Aminul Islam, Anwar and Iqbal Hossain.
In the case, she alleged that Nur abducted her husband over a dispute centring on construction of a road in Mijmiji area two months ago.
Locals said the rivalry between Nazrul and Nur Hossain started in 2000. The two contested union parishad elections for the position of chairman, and their supporters clashed violently over establishing supremacy in the area several times.