Obvious result in belated raid
Three days after the bodies of seven abductees, including Naryanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, were found floating in the Shitalakkhya, police yesterday raided the house of prime accused Nur Hossain.
The three-hour raid from 11:00am at his Shimrail residence in Naryanganj yielded predictable result -- neither Nur Hossain nor his family members were found.
Police, however, seized a microbus and detained 11 persons whose names and identities were not disclosed. All of the detainees are male and aged between 30 and 35, according to an official.
Nur Hossain, ward-4 councillor and vice president of Siddhirganj Awami League, got enough time to flee because of the laid-back attitude of police, allege locals.
On April 27, Nazrul, his four associates and lawyer Chandan Sarker and his driver were kidnapped separately, all around the same time. Police suspect one single group was behind their abduction and killing.
Nazrul's wife Selina Islam has all along been pointing the finger at Nur and Haji Mohammad Yasin, general secretary of Siddhirganj AL.
Both are prime accused in the case filed for abduction and killing of Nazrul and his aides.
On Thursday, a day after the bodies were found in the river, angry locals set fire to two offices of Nur at Shimrail on Dhaka-Chittagong highway and vandalised another near Kanchpur bridge.
After all these developments, police said Nur's house was not raided earlier because they didn't have necessary information.
“We raided the house based on information provided by detectives that a secret meeting was being held there,” Narayanganj SP Khandaker Mahid Uddin told journalists during a briefing at his office.
He added police arrested a person identified as Shipon with the mobile phone of Chandan from Dhaka on Friday night.
At the end of the raid yesterday, police took away the detainees in two microbuses through the backside of the residential complex with three two-storey buildings, while journalists and hundreds of locals were waiting in front.
Police allowed journalists to enter the compound for barely 10 minutes. The buildings are owned by three siblings including Nur, according to locals. A neighbour said the family had not been staying at the house since the abduction.
During the raid, the SP said, police detained 16 people but released five who are security guards. “We picked the 11 for quizzing.”
Nazrul's brother Abdus Salam told The Daily Star that from the very beginning they are not getting any positive response from law enforcers.
While Naryanganj is fuming over the brutal killing of the seven, another body was recovered from the Shitalakkhya yesterday.
Locals saw the bloated body at Chanpara in Rupganj upazila and informed police, said Asaduzzaman, officer-in-charge of Rupganj Police Station. It was sent to Narayanganj General Hospital morgue for autopsy.
Earlier in the day, Narayanganj District Bar Association formed a human chain and held a brief rally in front of the local press club in support of their hartal called to protest against the killings.
SAIFUL ABDUCTION
Detectives have arrested two people at Jatrabari in the capital in connection with the abduction of businessman Saiful Islam.
Of the two, Akash, a bKash service provider, was arrested around 4:15pm yesterday from his shop, said Abdul Ahad, additional deputy commissioner (north) of DB police.
Police found that a ransom was demanded from Saiful's manager Hannan using the mobile phone number of Akash, he added.
Talking about another detainee Nurjahan, held on Friday night, DMP Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said she lured Saiful to the location from where he was abducted on Thursday.
Saiful, who was abducted at Shanarpar in Narayanganj on Thursday and freed in Savar 26 hours later, gave deposition before a senior judicial magistrate in Narayanganj earlier in the day.
Addressing the press at the DMP media centre, Monirul also said following the abduction spree all over the country, they formed an “anti-kidnapping squad”.
ABDUCTION IN NOAKHALI
A trader in Begumganj upazila of Noakhali was rescued yesterday a day after his abduction.
Captors freed Abul Basar, 42, in Bangla Bazar area on Laxmipur-Noakhali road around 10:30am. Begumganj Police later took him to the police station.
Two unidentified persons on a motorbike picked Basar from Alaiapur area of the upazila on Friday afternoon. The kidnappers demanded Tk 5 lakh from his family over the phone.
ASM Ashrafuzzaman, additional police superintendent of police, said they had detained five suspects in this connection.
(Our Narayanganj and Noakhali correspondents contributed to this report)
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