Assailants stab CEC's brother to death

Ibrahim Kamal

Ibrahim Kamal, 49, also younger brother of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) MA Syed, died at the hospital at 12:30am, 15 minutes into the attack.

The police, after primary investigation, suspect it was a pre-planned murder but relatives of the victim failed to find any reason behind it.

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The attackers waylaid Kamal, assistant secretary at the Planning Commission and a freedom fighter, while he was returning on foot to his government quarters in the Bailey Road Officers' Colony.

The victim's relatives and witnesses said three youths jumped out of a silver-coloured car and caught him near the hospital, hardly 300 metres from the colony.

"I woke up hearing the shouts of some people and saw him jostling with three men," Abul Kashem, a street urchin who was sleeping on the footpath 10 metre from the spot, told The Daily Star.

"As the attackers released him after a while, the man collapsed to the ground and the assailants rushed to the car and sped away," he said.

The roadside tea-stall owners said they could not realise Kamal was stabbed as he stood up pressing his left chest with his hands and walked to the hospital emergency gate.

"He told doctors at the emergency department that he was stabbed," a 40-year-old tea-stall owner said preferring anonymity. "He was profusely bleeding at that time."

When the doctor asked him whether he was shot, Kamal answered in the negative and fell unconscious. He died minutes after his admission.

Witnesses said the armed attackers returned to the area in the same car 10 minutes after the killing, dragged a rickshaw-passenger to a nearby lane and mugged him.

Some pedestrians then chased the attackers while some people from adjacent Department of Women's Affairs threw brickbats forcing them to flee towards Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue.

Ramna police took Kamal's body to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital in the morning.

Morgue sources said Kamal died of a deep stab wound in the chest. The attackers also stabbed him in the nose and forehead.

The victim's brother Abul Kashem received the body after autopsy in the morning. After namaz-e-janaza at the Planning Commission in the afternoon, he was buried at Banani Graveyard.

Youngest of their eight brothers and three sisters, Kamal was a bachelor.

Kashem filed a case with Ramna Police Station against three unknown youths for the killing.

But police failed to arrest anyone till filing of this report at 7:00pm.

"We're trying our best. But it could be easier for us if we could know the motive of the killing," Mahbubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Ramna Police Station, told The Daily Star last night.

He however said the attackers came in a yellow cab. "We are looking for the car."

"It seems the killing was a planned one as the attackers took no money or other valuables from the victim," said the police officer.

Later, the Detective Branch (DB) of police took over the case and DB Inspector Ziaul Hasan was tasked with the investigation.

Failing to ascertain any reason for the killing, the victim's relatives said they did not know about Kamal's enmity with anyone. Locals also praised him as an amiable man.

Shell-shocked, CEC MA Syed did not attend office yesterday. "I got the news at 1:00 in the night and he (CEC) broke down after hearing it at 2:30am," his wife told The Daily Star.

Bangladesh Civil Service Economic Association expressed deep shock at Kamal's death and conveyed condolences to his bereaved family.