6 Students at Aminbazar
Mob did not kill them
Judicial probe report to SC suggests quizzing sand trader, drug peddlers
The incident of killing six students and injuring another youth in the early hours of July 18, on the night of holy Shab-e-Barat, in Keblarchar of Aminbazar took place before villagers had reached the spot.
The probe report of one-member judicial body has mentioned that villagers and others, who were offering prayers in the local graveyard, were not present during the killing as they reached there after the announcement of a robber attack was made in the mosque.
The High Court yesterday accepted the probe report and fixed November 15 for the final hearing on the writ petition that sought appropriate punishment to the people responsible for the incident.
The Daily Star has recently obtained a copy of the report of the judicial probe committee that was formed on a HC directive. The probe body submitted the sealed report to the Supreme Court registrar on September 19 for placing it to the HC bench concerned.
In his judicial probe report, Metropolitan Magistrate Utpal Kumar Chowdhury suggested interrogation of Abdul Malek of Shahdat Enterprise, who filed a robbery case against the victims, Abdur Rashid of Baradeshi village, who instigated the announcement on the mosque’s megaphone, and seven drug peddlers identified by villagers.
Tipu Sultan of Tejgaon College; Towhidur Rahman Palash, Kamruzzaman Kanto and Ibrahim Khalil of Mirpur Bangla College; Shams Rahim Shamam of Maple Leaf International School; and Sitaf Jabi Munif of Bangladesh University of Business and Technology were killed and Al Amin survived with severe injuries on the fateful night when they went to Keblarchar to enjoy the night of Shab-e-Barat.
The probe body also questioned the acceptability of the robbery case filed by sand trader Malek with Savar police as the probe body found discrepancies between the case statement and the statement he gave before the probe body.
“In the case statement, Malek mentioned that 15 to 20 robbers attacked him, but in his statement before the magistrate he said three robbers swooped on him. Another sand trader Abdul Hamid of Bhai Bhai Enterprise, who claimed himself a witness in his statement, said he saw seven to eight robbers attack Malek,” reads the probe report.
Besides, Mahbubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Savar Police Station, and the eight policemen, who were on duty in the area that night, told the probe body that they heard of no incident of robbery right after the killing.
The report also said police forced lone survivor Al Amin to give false statement that he and the students went to Keblarchar to take drugs and commit robbery on the assuarance that Al Amin’s life would be spared.
A three-member probe committee formed by the Police Headquarters earlier also found all the seven victims innocent, not robbers, and that the policemen on duty that night were negligent in saving the lives.
-With The Daily Star input
