‘I don’t believe my son is involved’
Father of Abrar murder accused Meftahul Islam Zion has denied his son’s involvement in the killing.
When this correspondent went to his Rangpur residence on Saturday, Shahidul Islam initially refused to talk to him. He simply shut the door, saying, “I don’t want to talk to anybody.”
After a while, he opened the door and agreed to talk. “I saw the CCTV footage that showed him [Zion],” said Shahidul. A couple of hours later, he saw on TV that police arrested his son on murder charge, he added.
Zion never had “bad reputation”, he said. “It [the murder allegation] is beyond the entire family’s imagination,” said Shahidul.
“I don’t believe that my son is involved in the brutal killing,” said the father.
However, Meftahul Islam Zion, sports secretary of Buet BCL, on Friday, confessed to a magistrate that he himself beat up Abrar with a cricket stump, said investigators.
Shahidul said, “I want the government to conduct a fair investigation into the case.”
Former treasurer of Durgapur union unit of Awami League, Shahidul said he is involved in political activities. Zion also got involved with pro-AL Bangladesh Chhatra League soon after he was admitted to Buet. “I never asked him to stay away from politics.”
Seeking anonymity, several residents in his neighborhood said Zion did not maintain decency while interacting with elders after he enrolled at Buet.
Shahidul, from Dholarpar village in Mithapukur upazila, ran a grocery shop at nearby Shathibari. He has now rented out the shop.
He said Zion passed SSC examination with GPA-5 from Shathibari High School in 2013. He achieved the same score in HSC exam from Notre Dame College, Dhaka in 2015, he added.
Zion has two other siblings. His elder brother is doing internship after completing MBBS course from a private medical college. His younger sister is a tenth-grader at a local school.
Abrar Fahad, a second-year student of Electrical and Electronic Engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), died after he was brutally beaten by some BCL men at a room of the university’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall on October 6 and 7.
Including Zion, law enforcers have so far arrested a total of 19 people in this connection.
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