Police still clueless about killers

Three days into the slaying of Sheikh Nurul Islam Faruqi, chief imam of the Supreme Court Jame Masjid, law enforcers are still without any clue to the murder. There has been no arrest either.

The police, Rapid Action Battalion and several intelligence agencies are probing the gruesome murder focusing on several issues including personal and religious rivalry, and financial feud over hajj.

Assailants slit the throat of Faruqi at his East Rajabazar home in the capital on Wednesday night.

His family members informed police that they suspected a woman might have been involved in the killing. The woman had phoned Faruqi for an appointment and later came to his house around 4:00pm on the fateful day. She introduced herself as Asma.

Victim's son Faisal Faruqi said he came to know from his mother that the woman wanted to stay at night. Failing to get permission, she left in the evening.

Around 30 to 40 people visited Faruqi at his home regularly to talk with him on various issues. The family members took the woman for a visitor to Faruqi. Police were trying to trace the woman.

Faisal filed a murder and robbery case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station on Thursday against eight to nine unnamed persons.

Relatives of Faruqi said one of the assailants was stationed at the veranda of the house to monitor the whole incident.

Standing on the veranda, the thug could easily see the movement of people on the road next to the house. And that is why his associates could easily hold hostage the three men who had entered the house in the middle of the event, said a relative wishing not to be named.

Police picked up the three on that night and freed them the following day after quizzing.

Aged about 60, Faruqi was the international affairs secretary of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, and a presidium member of Bangladesh Islami Front. He owned a hajj agency, Faruqi Tours and Travels Private Ltd, and presented Islamic programmes on two private television channels.

The third namaz-e-janaza of Faruqi was held at the Jatiya Eidgah maidan after Juma prayers yesterday. His body was being taken to his village home in Panchagarh for burial today.

PROTESTS CONTINUE

Several thousand leaders and activists of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Islami Front and its student wing Chhatra Sena brought out a protest procession from the Baitul Mukarram national mosques after Juma prayers yesterday, demanding immediate arrest of the killers.

The leaders said they will enforce a countrywide hartal tomorrow if the killers were not arrested by today.

In Chittagong, activists of Chhatra Sena city unit blocked the CDA Avenue around 2:00pm for about an hour and brought out protest processions in different areas, reports our correspondent.

Talking to The Daily Star, Faisal Faruqi said his father used to promote truth and justice. “What was my father's fault? We want immediate arrest of the killers.”

Some followers of Faruqi blamed law enforcers for failing to identify the killers and ascertain the motive behind the six-murder in the capital in December last year.

Criminals had slit the throats of six people, including a “pir” and his son, at a house in the capital's Gopibagh. The killers tied up the pir's wife, four other women, two children and a relative inside the house at that time.