'Nur killed 7 with admin help'

This April 30 file photo shows one of the seven bodies found on the river Shitalakkhya in Narayanganj is being pulled towards the shore. The photo was partly pixilated.

Siddhirganj Awami League leader Nur Hossain carried out the abduction and killing of seven people in Narayanganj in connivance with some officials of the local administration, a man said today during a mass hearing on the gruesome crime.

Shahin Azad, one of the six witnesses who gave depositions before a seven-member government probe committee, also said Nur, the prime accused, is loyal to local Awami League lawmaker Shamim Osman.

Azad talked with The Daily Star about his deposition at Narayanganj Circuit House this afternoon.

The body formed in line with a High Court recorded the depositions of the witnesses from 10:00am to 4:00pm on the first day of its two-day mass hearing.

It will again arrange a mass hearing on May 15, reports our Narayanganj correspondent.

"Motives behind the murders will become clear if the alleged law enforcers are interrogated,” Azad told the probe body.

Soon after the mass hearing began, Sakhawat Hossain, president of Narayanganj Ainjibi Samity, met with the investigators during the hearing and alerted them about people of the killers, who can go to them in guise of common people.

They can give wrong statement before the committee to conceal the fact, Hossain said.

The second phase of the hearing will be held on May 15.

The interested persons have been asked to be present on the respective days to give their depositions before the probe body.

On April 27, seven people -- Nazrul Islam and his four associates and Chandan Sarker and his driver -- were kidnapped separately, but around the same time from the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road.

Six bodies were found in the Shitalakkhya river three days later and another the next day.

The other victims are: Moniruzzaman, Tajul Islam, Liton, Ibrahim, and Jahangir.

The committee headed by Md Shahjahan Ali Mollah, additional secretary of the public administration ministry, recorded statements of family members and relatives of the seven victims including Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Sharker at the Deputy Commissioner’s office yesterday.