Panic-stricken daughters of slain Gulshan couple go into hiding
Two daughters of the couple slain at Gulshan in the capital are apprehending attacks from the alleged killers out on bail.
“We stay at our residence but as the sun sets, insecurity grips us and we take refuge somewhere else for the night,” said Bithi, the lone witness to the brutal killing of their parents.
Two gunmen–Rubel and Mithun– allegedly shot dead Sadequr Rahman, general secretary of Bangladesh Nursery Owners’ Association, and his wife Romana Nargis, on March 24 last year at their Gulshan residence as they resisted Rubel from picking up their daughter Iti.
Both got bail from the High Court on January 23 in the double murder case by submitting a forged first information report to it, court sources said.
The HC cancelled the bail on February 9 and also directed defence lawyers Munirul Islam and Monir Hossain to explain within a week their conduct over securing the bail.
Police could not yet arrest the two accused released on bail.
Sub-Inspector Mostafizur Rahman of Gulshan Police Station said several teams were trying to track them down.
Bithi said on Thursday that a day after their release on bail, Rubel and Mithun stopped a rickshaw in which she and her sister-in-law Momtaj Begum were passing through Bhatara intersection in Badda around 5:30pm on January 28.
“If you give deposition before the court, we will be hanged. So, it will make no difference if we kill you and your other family members,” she quoted Mithun as saying.
Both the accused also threatened her not to continue the murder case.
Bithi said she filed a general diary with Badda Police Station in this regard on January 29.
Momtaj Begum claimed Rubel and Mithun scared her daughter and Bithi off school and university after they were released on bail.
“We cannot lead a normal life and are passing days like refugees due to threats from them,” she added.
The HC had earlier directed Dhaka Metropolitan Police to ensure security of the victims’ family members after The Daily Star published a report on August 14 last year headlined “Killers now target two daughters.”
Bithi’s only brother Shihab is a guest worker in Malaysia, while her other sister Sathi studies in Japan.
Police pressed charges against four people in the double murder case. They are Rubel, Mithun, Rubel’s maternal uncle Mohammad Altaf Hossain Altu, and husband of Rubel’s sister Mohammad Mohiuddin Azad.
Altaf allegedly supplied the weapon used in the crime and Azad gave shelter to the alleged killers. Both of them are on bail.
The case is under trial at the Speedy Trial Tribunal Court-3.
