Abrar begged for his life

Being tortured for hours, Buet student Abrar Fahad became so sick that at one point he could not even speak. He begged for his life by making gestures, but was shown no mercy.

The 21-year-old student of electrical and electronic engineering threw up and urinated after accused Anik Sarkar beat him up with cricket stumps 40 to 50 times in the second phase.

In the first, Anik had hit him with stumps 50 to 60 times. Several others also tortured him.

The horrifying description of the torture came up in the charge sheet of the Abrar murder case, submitted by the Detective Branch of police to a Dhaka court on Wednesday. Abrar died at the Sher-e-Bangla Hall of Buet sometime between October 6 night and early on October 7.

The DB accused 25 Buet students, mostly leaders and activists of the university unit Chhatra League, of the murder.

According to the charge sheet, Mizanur Rahman Mizan, a roommate of Abrar, played the key role in the incident.

Mizanur had informed Mehdi Hasan alias Robein, organising secretary of Buet Chhatra League, that he suspected Abrar as a Shibir man.

Abrar was brutally murdered on the false suspicion.

Based on the suspicion, Robein had uploaded a message on a Facebook group of the Buet’s 15 and 16 batch students of Sher-e-Bangla Hall on October 4.

Later that day, accused Amit Saha, Ifti Mosharraf Shokal, Akash Hossain, Khandaker Tabakkarul Islam, Moniruzzaman Monir, Meftaul Islam Jion and some other accused held a meeting, led by accused Robein and Ishtiaq Ahmed Munna, at the canteen of the dormitory.

The next day, other accused Hossain Mohammad Toha, Akash Hossain, Majedur Rahman Majed, Morshed Amartya Islam, and Moyaz Abu Huraira held another meeting, led by Moniruzzaman Monir, at the guest room.

The meeting decided that Abrar would be beaten to death, says the charge sheet.

On October 6 evening, accused Mustafa Rafid told Ifti and Robein that as he would leave for his village home, Abrar should be caught that night.

A little later, accused Toha and Shamsul Arefin Rafath informed Ifti that Abrar returned to the dormitory from home.

All the accused then met at room-2,011. After 8:00pm, Robein and Shokal asked accused Ehtashamul Rabbi Tanim, Muntasir al Jemy and ASM Nasmus Sadat to go to Abrar’s room where they found him asleep.

Tanim woke up Abrar and said he has to go to room-2,011. As Abrar asked for the reason, Tanim said he would know the reason after going there.

Later, they took Abrar, along with his laptop and two mobile phones, to room-2,011 where Tanvir, Ifti, Shokal, and Mustafa checked the phones and the laptop. One of them said information regarding his links with Shibir was found.

Then 11 of the accused either hit Abrar with cricket stumps and skipping rope or slapped and kicked him for hours.

The 14 others abetted the killing by calling Abrar to room-2,011 or by carrying the unconscious victim to another room and finally to the landing of the staircase, according to the charge sheet.

It further mentioned that accused SM Mahmud alias Setu visited room-2,011 around 11:00pm and told everyone to keep torturing Abrar.

Buet BCL general secretary Mehedi Hasan Russel and joint general secretary Muhtasim Fuad gave directives to carry out the killing and abetted the murder. Russel put pressure on Buet doctors to take away the body quickly.