Self-proclaimed killer on bail: Slain Buet student Dwip’s father seeks PM’s intervention

Sk Ali Azam, father of Arif Rayhan Dwip —a Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (Buet) student who was hacked to death by a fellow student reportedly radicalised by sermons in 2013 — has sought the prime minister's intervention to ensure justice.

Dwip, who was vocal about the capital punishment for war criminals back in 2013, died after being in a coma for 84 days on July 2, 2013. He was a third-year mechanical engineering student at Buet, said a press release.

Dwip, also a Buet Chhatra League leader, was hacked by fellow student Mesbahuddin who confessed before a magistrate that encouraging sermons provoked him to commit the grisly attack.

In a virtual meeting organised by former Buet Chhatra League leaders marking the death anniversary of Dwip, his father lamented the impunity enjoyed by Mesbah who is now out on bail.

"I can still feel Dwip's presence when I visit Buet. My earnest request to the prime minister is to ensure highest punishment for the killer," he said, referring to the killer who stabbed Dwip in broad daylight.

Speakers at the webinar were vocal against fundamentalism, urging everyone to resist extremism.

Former Chhatra League leaders including Khondkar Monjur Morshed, S M Monjurul Haque Monju, and Ataul Mahmud attended the webinar, among others.

Mesbah, son of a retired government official, who was admitted to Buet's civil engineering department in 2007, earlier said he came across a mawlana in Dhaka's Gandaria Faridabad Madrasa, Muktamim Mufti Abu Syeed.

He wanted to know from the mawlana what action should be taken against those who "undermine Islam".

Mufti Abu Syeed told him that the state should take action against such persons. But if the state does nothing, anyone can take it upon himself if he wants, Mesbah said quoting the mawlana.

"Then I swore to myself that I would take drastic action against the enemies of Islam or the atheists. I am ready to become a martyr," Mesbah told the magistrate.

"On April 9 in 2013, I was at Dr MA Rashid Hall. I went to Nazrul Islam Hall, brought out a machete from my bag and struck Dwip on the head. As he was falling on the floor, I hacked him in the back.

"Then I spent some time on the fourth-floor rooftop and climbed down the pipe to the ground floor. I walked to Kamrangirchar, from where I went to Sadarghat in a rickshaw and started for Shariatpur by a launch. I spent the night at Naria Madrasa. The next day I came to Dhaka and stayed at my hall at night," Mesbah said.

Mesbah said he had learnt that "Dwip had beaten up the imam of Shaheed Smriti Hall Mosque". "I thought it was my holy duty to kill Dwip," he said.

The aforementioned Imam, Abdul Alim, had given shelter to activists of Qawmi madrasa-based Islamist group Hefazat-e Islam who had come to Dhaka to join their grand rally on May 5, 2013. Dwip confronted the imam and handed him over to police.

During the popular movement demanding trial for war criminals back in 2013, another Buet student Tonmoy Ahmed was hacked reportedly by Shibir activists during his stay at his village home on Eid vacation.

Having over as many as 130 stitches all over, Tonmoy was reportedly attacked for his active role in countering a wave of smear campaign unleashed by Shibir activists to stop the trial and put the anti-Islamic tag on the anti-war crimes campaigners.