Who were the people who left in jeep, Hiace with pistols, handcuffs, walkie-talkies

A group of people identifying themselves as members of the Detective Branch (DB) of police stopped a passenger bus on a highway late at night.

Equipped with pistols, handcuffs, torches, and walkie-talkies, they dragged the bus driver out of the vehicle and then beat him to death. The assailants then left the scene by a Hiace microbus, a private car, and a jeep.

Though the incident took place in the Shiklabaha Bridge area on the south side of the Karnaphuli Bridge in Chattogram six years ago, the port city’s detective branch filed the final report to the court at the end of September.

The final report says the beating and killing of the driver has been found to be true, but those involved in the incident could not be identified. The investigation report states that DB police were not involved in the incident. The police also had given a similar report earlier.

The deceased driver’s was Jalal Uddin, from Dinajpur district. He was killed on the night of 22 April 2019. The victim’s family and fellow bus drivers said it is regrettable that even after six years the perpetrators have not been identified. Whoever is responsible, they demand that the perpetrators be identified and brought to justice.

The plaintiff in the case has said he will file a no confidence petition against the investigation report in court. A hearing for acceptance of the report in the presence of the plaintiff is scheduled at the Chattogram Metropolitan Magistrate Court on 4 November.

The president of the Chattogram regional committee of the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, Md Musa, expressed surprise that the killers of bus driver Jalal Uddin were not identified after two rounds of investigation.

He told Prothom Alo that those responsible must be identified and brought to justice.

The deceased’s wife, Ilina Khanam, said their eldest of three sons is disabled and the other two are still young. The family is struggling financially after her husband’s death.

She lamented, “Justice is far away — the police couldn’t even identify the killers in six years. Since we are poor, will we not get justice? Will my children never know who killed their father?”

According to the documents of case and the sources in the deceased’s family, Jalal Uddin was a bus driver for Shyamoli Paribahan. On the night of 22 April 2019 he was driving a bus from Cox’s Bazar toward Gazipur.

Around 11:30 pm, near the Shiklabaha Bridge adjacent to Patiya and Karnaphuli upazilas of Chattogram, four men posing as DB police first stopped his vehicle.

They then accused him of having yaba (methamphetamine) and began beating him to force him to reveal it. At the scene there were 10–12 people claiming to be DB police. Eventually they left the injured driver in the bus and drove away. He was taken to Chattogram Medical College Hospital, where physicians declared him dead.

The police’s post-mortem report stated marks of blows on the deceased’s back, waist, knees and wrists. The deceased’s younger brother, Jewel Hossain, filed a murder case at Karnaphuli police station against unidentified people.

The case statement says that the people who boarded the vehicle claiming to be DB police had pistols, handcuffs and walkie-talkies.

The murder sparked outrage among transport workers across the country at the time. In protest of the killing, the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation staged a bus strike on 88 routes from the evening of 24 April until the following afternoon in Dhaka, Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar and other cities.

Initially, the case was investigated by the Counter Terrorism Unit of Chattogram police.

During the investigation, the bus supervisor, Azim Uddin, and a local witness gave depositions as witnesses before the Chattogram Metropolitan Magistrate Court on 26 April of that year, describing the incident.

In his statement, Azim said that they had set out from Cox’s Bazar at around 8:00 pm with 28 passengers on board, heading towards Gazipur. At around 11:30 pm, when the vehicle reached the Shiklabaha Bridge area, four men identifying themselves as DB police stopped the bus. They were carrying pistols, handcuffs, walkie-talkies, and torches.

The men told driver Jalal that he was carrying yaba. At that point, the driver was handcuffed and taken out of the vehicle. The individuals then began beating him.

According to Azim, the men who beat the driver were between 35 and 40 years of age. No one mentioned anyone’s name during the incident. After the assault, the men left the driver in the bus and fled the scene in a jeep, a Hiace, and a private car.

The witness who gave a statement in court works as a watchman. In his statement he said that first a microbus arrived at the scene with people posing as DB police. Four or five people got out of that vehicle. Soon after, a jeep and a private car arrived. He did not recognise any of the people who got out of the vehicles.

After three years of investigation, then-inspector Sanjay Kumar Sinha of the CTU Chattogram submitted the final report to the court on 16 July 2022.

It stated that the autopsy report indicated the driver died from the beatings, but the people involved could not be identified. Because the scene was desolate, no CCTV footage was found. The registration number of the vehicle used by the perpetrators to flee could not be obtained. However, the report said that no member of Chattogram DB police was involved.

When this first final report was submitted to the court, the plaintiff filed a naraji petition. The court then instructed DB police to investigate the case further. After investigation, Sub-Inspector Zainal Abedin of the city DB police also submitted a final report to the court at the end of last month.

Like the earlier investigating officer, he stated that Chattogram DB police were not involved. The report says it has been verified through information technology that no police were present at the scene at the time. The Hiace and jeep that fled the scene could not be identified.

When contacted, the investigating officer Zainal Abedin told Prothom Alo that although the death was caused by beating, they could not identify those involved, hence the final report was submitted to the court.

Jewel Hossain, the plaintiff and the deceased’s younger brother, has said he will file a naraji petition in court following the second final report by police.

He told Prothom Alo, “Both rounds of investigation say Chattogram police were not involved. Then who were those people posing as law enforcers? It is not possible for a criminal gang to stop a vehicle on a busy public road and carry out such acts. We want the perpetrators identified and brought to justice.”