<i>Nurul Islam's death still a mystery </i>

Two years have elapsed and police are yet to reveal the mystery behind the fire incident that killed Ganotantri Party President Nurul Islam and his son Tamohor Islam at their Lalmatia residence in the city on December 3, 2008.
Victims' family members claimed it was a planned killing by a quarter, which had been issuing death threats to Nurul over cell phone asking him not to run in 2008 parliamentary elections.
They are also not satisfied with the on going investigation process and termed some probe reports prepared by different organisations ambiguous, inconsistent and even contradictory.
Nurul at his deathbed at Dhaka Medical College Hospital disclosed that unidentified mobile phone callers were asking him to come to the path of Allah and not to join the polls race. The investigators are yet to detect the phone callers who used to issue threats.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials, who are investigating the case, said they collected one month's call list of Nurul Islam's cell phone and were trying to detect the offenders.
Talking to The Daily Star Nurul's daughter Moutushi expressed her dissatisfaction over the investigation process. "We do not think that the investigation is being carried out fairly."
She claimed the clues of broken door lock and bent window grill were not taken seriously during the investigation.
She also lamented that though the case has been listed as a sensational one, very little progress has been made so far.
Ministry of Home Affairs, Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Fire Service and Civil Defence Directorate, CID, Detective Branch (DB) of police and Chemistry Department of Dhaka University filed several probe reports after carrying out investigation separately at different phases.
Gross inconsistencies are evident in the investigation reports regarding the cause of the fire incident.
Fire service in its report prepared on December 7, 2009, mentioned that an electric short circuit caused the fire by exploding compressor of a fridge in the apartment.
Another report on December 22 in the same year cancelled the possibility of short circuit as the cause of the fire, stating that the circuit breakers of the apartment were intact.
In its initial report on December 21, 2008, DPDC stated that there was no clue of short circuit causing the fire and also claimed supply of electricity to the refrigerator was cut off.
The report also added that the main circuit breaker and the circuit breaker used for the supply line of refrigerator were turned off, which indicates that there was no power supply.
However, in another report on January 18, 2010, DPDC pointed out that they did not notice the burnt power strip, which was used for the refrigerator damaged in the fire. They suspected that the power strip might have caused the fire.
Tamohor was burnt alive on the spot while Nurul succumbed to his injury at Combined Military Hospital the following day after the incident.
Awami League led grand alliance nominated Nurul to contest from Noakhali-1 constituency in 2008 parliamentary election.