Maj Arif tells of Zia's role

On April 29 last year, two days after the gruesome seven-murder in Narayanganj, Rab Additional Director General (operations) Col Ziaul Ahsan gave former Rab-11 commanding officer Tareque Sayeed Mohammad an assignment: killing Nur Hossain by the end of the day.

Nur Hossain is the main accused in the seven-murder case and he allegedly paid Rab men Tk 6 crore to kill Narayanganj city councillor Nazrul Islam, one of the seven.

Col Zia, second-in-command of the elite force, called the now sacked Tareque and Maj Arif Hossain to his Rab headquarters office and gave the order.

When Arif spoke of his fear of severe consequences of another murder on top of the seven-murder, Zia told Tareque, “CO [commanding officer], you have to do this.”

Nur Hossain, however, later fled the country and is now in an Indian jail for entering the country without valid papers.     

The Daily Star learned about Zia's order to kill Nur Hossain from Arif's confessional statement. The seven-murder charge sheet contains confessional statements of a number of accused.

The charge sheet, a copy of which has been obtained by this newspaper, does not explain why Zia gave the order to kill Nur Hossain.

Contacted last night, Zia said the confessional statements were contradictory and baseless.

One could say anything in a confessional statement and that it was the investigating officer's job to verify it, he added.

“In the charge sheet, am I an accused of committing the offence? Did the investigating officer find any evidence to prove my involvement in the case? The intention behind dragging me into the matter proves they tried in every way to escape punishment after committing a crime,” he said.  

After Nazrul disappeared on April 27 last year, his wife Selina Islam requested Tareque to arrest Nur Hossain, Nazrul's political rival, to find out her husband. Tareque met Selina and her family members between 8:00 and 9:00 that night at the Rab-11 office in Narayanganj, according to Tareque's confessional statement.

About three hours later, around 12:30am, Tareque received a call in which Maj Arif told him: “I am ready to make the seven disappear.”

According to Arif's confession, Tareque then said, “Ok, go ahead.”

Tareque was duly informed of every development ever since two teams of about 20 Rab personnel abducted Nazrul, his driver and three aides. Senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were picked up separately but around the same time as Chandan witnessed the abduction of Nazrul and the others.

Bodies of six of them were found in the Shitalakkhya on April 30 and that of another in the same river the next day.

Earlier, at a conference of commanding officers in March last year, Zia assigned Tareque with arresting Nazrul.

The Rab ADG gave Tareque a list of criminals to be arrested. “In that list, Nazrul was marked specifically,” Tareque said in his confession.

Tareque then ordered Arif to arrest Nazrul and asked Lt Commander Masud Rana to assist Arif in this. Masud confessed to have made several failed attempts to carry out the order.

According to Arif, success came on April 27, the day Nur Hossain informed him that Nazrul was expected to appear before a Narayanganj court.

The message was relayed to Tareque around 10:00am. After Tareque gave the go ahead, Arif led a team of 11 Rab members and Rana a team of seven to eight for the operation.

Around 1:30pm, Arif picked up Nazrul and four others in his car from a relatively deserted area near Fatullah stadium.

Around the same time and place, Rana and his team picked up a man, who later turned out to be lawyer Chandan Sarkar, and his driver as they raised a hue and cry over the abduction of Nazrul and his aides.

The two teams then drove towards Kanchpur and around 1:50pm Arif reported to Tareque that they picked up the seven men.

“No witness can be spared. Make all of them disappear,” Arif quoted the CO as ordering him.

Then on April 28 around 2:00am, Zia called Arif. But instead of answering the phone, he called his CO, Tareque, to ask why the ADG was calling him.

Tareque told Arif that he would call Zia and let him know. A little later, he returned the call and said the ADG asked Arif and his team to meet him.

When Arif reached a Narayanganj jetty around 3:30am, he found Tareque already waiting there. Tareque immediately sent Arif to Zia's office at the Rab headquarters, where he reached around 4:00am.

When Zia asked him where Nazrul was, Arif was surprised because all the seven were already murdered and dumped into the Meghna river.

“Why do you ask me this?” Arif told Zia. “I do what my CO [Tareque] asks me to do. So, talk to the CO about the matter.”

Zia then phoned Tareque and asked Arif to talk to him. Arif took the phone and asked Tareque: “Sir, why is the ADG sir asking me about Nazrul's whereabouts?”

Tareque told him that he too was not clear why the ADG was asking this.

In the confessional statement, Rana quoted Arif as telling him: “I killed them around 12:30am, by pushing injection, under the Kanchpur bridge, and then strangulating them inside the car. Zia called me around 2:00am. Had he called me around 11:30pm or 12:00am it would not have happened.”

Asked about this, Zia said he called Arif as soon as the matter was brought to his notice. “How could I make the call earlier?”