5 officials of correction centre held
Police arrested five people, including Abdullah Al Masud, superintendent of the Jashore juvenile correction centre, on Friday night in connection with the incident of torturing three boys of the centre to death.
The four other arrestees are Masum Billah, assistant superintendent, Mushfikur Rahman, psychosocial counsellor, and physical instructors Shahanur and Omar Faruk, police said.
On Friday, police took 10 people, including several officials and inmates of the correction centre, in custody for interrogation.
Of the 10, five were arrested as police primarily found their involvement in the murder, said Mohammad Ashraf Hossain, superintendent of Jashore Police, while speaking to reporters on Friday night.
Meanwhile, the social welfare ministry has suspended Abdullah for negligence of duty, said a letter signed by Social Welfare Secretary Mohammad Jainul Bari sent from the ministry that same night.
Besides, the ministry formed a three-member committee, headed by Jashore's additional district magistrate, to investigate the incident, said an office order signed by Mahmuda Yeasmin, the ministry's assistant secretary.
The committee has been asked to submit a report within five working days.
On Friday, the department of social services formed a two-member committee to investigate the incident.
Young inmates on the correction centre were allegedly tortured by several staffers and senior inmates, which led to the death of the three boys.
The allegation was raised by injured inmates who had also been through abuse and are undergoing treatment at Jashore General Hospital.
At first, the teenagers were shown a CCTV footage of the August 3, the day a head guard of the centre assaulted by some teenage inmates and suddenly the beatings started, the injured boys said.
At one point, the senior inmates pulled the hands of the younger inmates through a grilles while the officials, including Masum, beat them ruthlessly until they got tired, they added.
The officials then handed over the teenagers to the senior inmates, who beat them until some of them were unconscious.
Then, around 3:00pm, the beating started again until many lost their consciousness a second time, the injured boys at the hospital said, adding that three of them -- Parvez Hasan Rabbi, 18, Rasel alias Sujon, 18, and Naeem Hossain, 17 -- never regained their senses and died in the evening.
Rabbi's father filed a case against the authorities of Jashore juvenile correction centre with Jashore Kotwali Police Station on Friday evening in this regard.
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