Complaint filed at ICT over retired major’s killing

A complaint was lodged with the ICT Chief Prosecutor's Office yesterday over the 2016 killing of major (retd) Jahidul Islam -- an incident described as a staged "militant drama".

Jahidul's widow, Jebun Nahar Islam, lodged the complaint accusing several senior police officials of killing her husband and forcibly disappearing her and her two daughters for over four months.

The accused are: Md AKM Shahidul Hoque, then inspector general of police; Md Monirul Islam, then chief of the Detective Branch; Md Asaduzzaman, then chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit; Md Masud Ahmed, then deputy commissioner of Mirpur; Md Shahid Alam, then officer-in-charge of Rupnagar Police Station; and several unidentified police personnel of the same police station.

According to the complaint, on September 2, 2016, around 10:00pm, the accused blindfolded Jebun Nahar and her two daughters, and took them to an unknown location where they were detained.

She said the next day, during interrogation, she was told, "You and your husband are militants. If you do not confess, you will be sent to your husband."

The complaint further alleged that after Jahidul's murder, she and her daughters were kept at DB's "Aynaghar" for four months and seven days, during which they were subjected to physical and mental torture -- to make her confess that her husband was a militant.

She claimed that when she made no confession, the accused took her elder daughter and staged a "militant drama" at a house in Azimpur, sending the girl to a juvenile victim centre.

Jebun Nahar also alleged that she spent four years in jail before being released on bail, which was later cancelled in 2019. She was re-arrested and taken back to jail until her release on August 31, 2024, following the fall of the Awami League government.

The then police claimed the deceased was Murad alias Jahangir Alam alias Omar; fellow militants would call him "Major Shaheb".

As the military commander of "Neo JMB", he gave arms training to the Holey Artisan and Sholakia attackers, police also claimed.