‘Seniors stopped us from taking him to hospital’

SM Nasmus Sadat, one of the accused in Buet student Abrar Fahad murder case, yesterday confessed to a magistrate that he and some other students of his batch called the victim out of his room as per directives of another accused Moniruzzaman Monir.  The gruesome murder triggered a firestorm of protests at university campuses across the country.  

“I didn’t hit Abrar on that night,” Sadat said in his confessional statement to Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sarafuzzaman Ansary at his chamber, after being produced by investigation officer Md Wahiduzzaman, inspector of the Detective Branch (DB) of police.

In his statement, Sadat told the magistrate Abrar was brought to room 2011 of Sher-e-Bangla Hall on October 6. Seniors from batches 15 and 16 of Buet -- including Mehedi Hasan Robein, Anik Sarkar, Ifti Mosharraf Shakal, Muzahidur Rahman Muzahid and Moniruzzaman -- started hitting him (Abrar) indiscriminately.

While Abrar was being brutally beaten, he repeatedly begged for water to drink, but was not given any, he said.

“When seniors were striking Abrar mercilessly, he begged for some water several times. But they [the seniors] did not allow us to provide him with water despite our requests,” said Sadat, a 17th batch student at Buet.

He also said while Abrar was being beaten, he fell seriously ill at one stage. “We wanted to take Abrar to hospital for treatment, but again the seniors did not allow us,” he continued.

Around half an hour after midnight, he left for his room in the dormitory, Sadat added.

After recording his statement, the magistrate sent him to Keraniganj Central Jail in Dhaka.

Sadat is the eighth of the 20 accused who have made confessional statements -- narrating horrific descriptions of torturing Abrar to death.

Abrar, a batch-17 student of electrical and electronics engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, was beaten with cricket stumps and skipping ropes for hours by Buet unit BCL leaders and activists at the university dorm between October 6 night and the early hours of October 7, leading to his death.

Abrar’s father filed a murder case against 19 students of the university, mostly Buet BCL leaders, and several other unnamed accused with Chawkbazar Police Station on October 7.

Detectives have already arrested 20 people, including 16 FIR-named accused, in connection with the murder.