Boy along with father and several others took part in Gazipur murders

It wasn't only an underage boy, but also his father and several others, who took part in the sensational killing of four members of a family in Gazipur.

Three of the victims were also raped before murder, following which the criminals looted the house to get money for gambling and buying narcotics.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) made the disclosure today after arresting five persons in the last two days from Sreepur area in this connection.

The murder-robbery took place in the early hours of Friday (April 24).

The arrestees are: Kazim Uddin, 50, a rickshaw-puller and father of the underage boy, Hanif, 32, day-labourer, Bashir, 26, auto-rickshaw driver, Helal, 30, scrap trader, and Elahi Miah, 35, a day-labourer.

Rab recovered Tk 30,000, some gold jewellery, and blood-stained clothes from the arrestees.

"They are all drug addicts and gamblers. They committed the crime as they could not afford drugs and gambling on their income," Lt Col Md Sarwar-Bin-Quasem, director (Legal and Media) of Rab, said at an online media briefing today.

Earlier, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested Kazim's son, aged 17, in this connection. He confessed to the crime before a Gazipur court on Monday and was sent to the Juvenile Correction Centre in Tongi.

Rab's version of organised crime, however, contradicts the PBI version of a single-handed crime.

The Rab director thinks the boy might try to take all blame on himself as his father is involved. As a juvenile, he will face lighter punishment than the others.

The victims are -- Smriti Fatema, 38, wife of Rezwan Hossain who is an expatriate in Malaysia, his elder daughter Sabrina Noora, 16, younger daughter Hawarin, 12 and son Fadil, 8.

Sabrina Noora took the SSC examination this year and her younger sister was a sixth-grader. Their little brother was a kindergarten student.

Police said Fatema was an Indonesian citizen. Fatema and Rezwan got married 22 years ago and settled in Gazipur's Abdar village in 2010. Rezwan continued working in Malaysia, but Fatema did not return.

Rab gave a gruesome description of the incident quoting the arrestees.

Rab said the arrestees have been involved in various crimes including theft and robbery for a long time. Besides, they were neighbours to the victims and used to harass them in various ways.

About a month and a half ago, Kazim's son Parvez was caught by Fatema while he was hiding under a bed in the victim's house.

Police said the boy was accused of raping and killing a child in 2018. He spent nine months in jail for the murder case and was released recently.

Rab said Kazim and Hanif planned the robbery five to six days before the incident.

They finalised plans with Bashir, Helal, Elahi and others. Kazim's son also joined them, Rab said quoting the arrestees after primary interrogation.

According to their plan, they gathered behind the house on April 23 around 12:30am.

At first, the boy entered the house through a ventilator. Hanif climbed on to the rooftop and entered the house through the stairs. He opened the door for everyone else.

Three of them including Kazim and Helal first entered Fatema's house and asked for the money, threatening her with knives. Fatema told them that she didn't have much money and gave them Tk 30,000.

Later they snatched gold from Fatema and raped her in turn. During the time, the others continued looting the rest of the rooms, Rab said. Rab said the underage boy also took part in the rapes and murders.

"They also debated whether to kill the youngest child—Fadil--who was intellectually-disabled. But they proceeded to kill him as he was a likely witness to the incident," the Rab director said, adding that they hacked the victims with sharp weapons and strangled them.

The arrestees have been handed over to the PBI. Rab is on look-out for three to four others involved in the incident.