Rab denies orders to arrest Nazrul
The Rapid Action Battalion Headquarters yesterday denied that it had issued any order for the arrest of Narayanganj city panel mayor Nazrul Islam, who was kidnapped and killed along with six others in April.
Rab Director General Mukhlesur Rahman claimed that the HQ was not even aware of the seven-murder beforehand.
“The Rab HQ does not issue arrest order against any specific person. After scrutinising information given by commanding officers [of different units], it asks them to take action on a particular matter. It is the COs who take the decision whether or not to arrest anyone,” the DG said while briefing journalists at his office.
The Rab chief made the claims following a report published by Bangla daily Prothom Alo yesterday saying that the Nazrul's arrest order had come from the Rab HQ.
The report says Col Ziaul Hasan, additional director general (operations) of the Rab, gave the order to Lt Col Tareque Sayeed Mohammad, the then CO of Rab-11, in March.
On April 27, Nazrul and his four associates and senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were abducted around the same time from Narayanganj in broad daylight. Their bodies were found in the Shitalakkhya river later.
Mukhlesur said the Rab provided all necessary assistance to unravel the facts and helped police arrest the accused. “There was no secret.”
"The Rab headquarters does not want acquittal of any of its personnel involved in criminal activities," he said.
The Rab boss urged the media only to write about the accused instead of putting the blame on the force.
If the Rab, as an organisation, suffers any loss, the people of the country will suffer too, he said.
An accused in the much-talked-about seven-murder case, Tareque gave the information in his confessional statement under the section 164, Prothom Alo said quoting investigators concerned.
Maj Arif Hossain, another accused and then a company commander of Rab-11, said in his confessional statement that Tareque had given the order to abduct all the seven people.
Nur Hossain, prime accused in the case, allegedly gave the accused former Rab officials Tk 6 crore to have Nazrul killed and provided information about Nazrul's whereabouts. Nur was arrested in India on June 14 for intruding into the country.
Comments