Abu Sayeed was killed by bullets fired by protesters, say police
Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayeed’s body was sprayed with pellets fired by police. Bullets pierced from throat to thigh. But the police have a different story to tell at the First Information Report (FIR) it prepared. According to it, Abu Sayeed died at one stage of bullets fired and brickbats flung by the protesters.
Multiple video footage of the incident show that police shot Abu Sayeed from a close range in front of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur during a ‘complete shutdown’ programme of quota reform protesters on 16 July. Abu Sayeed, holding a stick in one hand, had his arms wide open. He collapsed within a while after the gunshots.
Razibul Islam, head of the forensic medicine department at Rangpur Medical College Hospital, conducted the autopsy of Abu Sayeed’s body. He told Prothom Alo on Saturday that there is nothing to hide as Sayeed’s body had shotgun pellets’ wounds all over. He died of internal hemorrhage.
He said an autopsy report will be prepared within days.
However, the FIR does not mention that Sayeed was killed by police firing.
A day after Sayeed’s death, a case was filed with Tajhat police station. Sub inspector and Begum Rokeya University police outpost’s in charge Bibhuti Bhushan Roy filed the case.
‘Miscreants who were demonstrating against the state in the name of students started firing indiscriminately and throwing brick chunks from different directions around 2:15pm. To bring the situation under control Sohel (a cop) fired 169 rounds of rubber bullets from the police's APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier). The whole university area turned into a battleground,’ read the FIR.
About the death of Sayeed it wrote, ‘A student was seen grounded at one stage of firing and throwing of bricks from different directions by the protesters. His classmates took him to Rangpur Medical College Hospital at 15:05 in the afternoon, where he was pronounced dead by the physicians.’
Around 2/3 thousands unidentified unruly protesters and activists of BNP and Jamaat-Shibir were accused in the case.
Bibhuti confirmed filing the FIR, but did not want to say anything further.
Contacted, Rangpur metropolitan police commissioner Md Moniruzzaman told Prothom Alo on Saturday that the FIR has mentioned the incident. What it has on Sayeed’s death is nothing final. The investigation would find out the total picture upon analysing the probe committee’s report, autopsy report and footages.
The police commissioner also said the police used teargas shells, sound grenades and fired pellets from shotguns to bring the situation under control. None from police was given permission to shoot or use firearms. Judicial committee and a probe committee by police are working with professionalism.
Proper action would be taken if the probe committees find any proof of use of firearms by any policeman, he added.
Abu Sayeed was a student of the English department at the university. Hailing from Jafarpara Babarpur village under Pirganj upazila in Rangpur, Sayeed was a coordinator of ‘anti-discriminatory student movement’ at Begum Rokeya University.
The protesters who witnessed the incident said police continued firing indiscriminately although an injured Abu Sayeed collapsed already after being hit by bullets. Sabina Akter, a coordinator of the platform from Begum Rokeya University, said Abu Sayeed was a victim of ‘target killing’.
The video footages show that when Sayeed fell down on the road after being injured by the bullet, the fellow students took him in a rickshaw and headed towards Rangpur Medical College Hospital.
Tuhin Wadud, a Bangla department professor at Begum Rokeya University, told Prothom Alo that Abu Sayeed was killed brutally in broad daylight, and the world watched the video footage.
"Now, the police are trying to shift the blame to others. It would further damage the public's trust in the police force," he added.