Nur Hossain would pay Maj Arif a million a month

Major Arif Hossain, former commander of the RAB-11 Narayanganj camp, would take Tk 10 lac (Tk 1 million) from Nayanganj ward councillor Nur Hossain every month. In exchange, Nur Hossain would receive all sorts of illegal facilities.

This was revealed in the charge sheet for the murder of seven persons, including another councillor of Narayanganj, Nazrul Islam. It was said that 21 days before these persons were abducted, Nur Hossain spoke to Major Arif 27 times over the phone.

After 11 months of investigation, on 8 April, officer-in-charge of Narayanganj police detective branch (DB) Mamunur Rashid Mondal submitted the charge sheets of the two cases filed in connection to these murders, to the senior judicial magistrate of Narayanganj, Chandi Rupam. The wife of murdered Nazrul, however, placed an objection. The court has fixed 8 June as the next date for hearing.

Earlier in his confessional statement in court, Major Arif had said that RAB additional director general Ziaur Ahsan had told him, "Nur Hossain has to be killed within today." The charge sheet makes no mention of this. Investigating officer of the case, Mamunur Rashid, told Prothom Alo, "The order was not carried out. In the charge sheet we have included whatever our investigations have revealed."

The seven-murder charge sheet accused 35 persons, including three former RAB officers. Of these 35 accused, 22 are in jail. The remaining 13, including eight members of RAB, are absconding.

In the charge sheet the investigating officer stated, the police wanted to exhume the bodies for autopsy 40 days after the murders. They had hoped to find out about a lethal injection that has been administered, but the district civil surgeon said that it would not be possible to detect traces of the drug so late, and so their plan was shelved.

In mentioning the motive behind the murders, it was stated that as a ward councillor of the city corporation, Nur Hossain would make about Tk 35 lac (Tk 3.5 million) per day by illegal land acquisitions, extortion at the Shimrail bus stand, liquor, housie in the name of jatra, gambling, drug dealing and so on.

When Major Arif Hossain took over as commander of the Adamjee camp, he would visit Nur Hossain's office around eight to ten times a month. He even took money from Nur Hossain to buy a flat in Dhaka. Taking advantage of this, Nur Hossain used Arif to remove his opponents. In keeping with his plans, Nazrul Islam and his companions were abducted. Chandan Sarkar who was in a grey private car on the road at the time, saw this abduction and began shouting. Lieutenant Commander Rana dragged him and his driver Ibrahim out of the car and into the microbus. Then at the orders of Lt. Col. Tareq Sayeed Mohammed, Lt Commander MM Rana and driver Mizan took the car to Niketan in Gulshan, Dhaka and abandoned it there, in an attempt to get rid of the evidence.

The charge sheet stated that the main accused Nur Hossain in a pre-planned manner used the RAB officers to abduct the seven men, including Nazrul Islam. They killed the seven and disposed of their bodies at the BIWTA landing jetty in Kanchpur.

For the sake of financial gains, Lt. Col. Tareq Sayeed violated the discipline of his position as commander of the elite force and used his officers and men to abduct and kill these persons and dispose of their bodies.

At the orders of Major Arif, the seven persons were abducted, killed and disposed of by SI Purnendu Bala, Lance Nayek Belal Hossain, Heera Diya, Al Amin Sharif, Abdul Alim, Mohiuddin Munshi, constable Shihabuddin and sepoy Abu Tayyeb.

On orders from Major Arif, Sgt Enamul Kabir, havildar Emdadul Huq, Nasiruddin, ASI Bazlur Rahman and Tajul Islam filled up large plastic bags with bricks to help in disposing of the bodies.

At the orders of Nur Hossain, his close associates Shahajahan, Mortuza Zaman, Ali Mohammed Mizanur Rahman Dipu, Raham Ali, Abdul Bashar, Selim Sanaullah, Jamaluddin and Reaz, guarded the BIWTA landing jetty and the surrounding areas so that Major Arif and the RAB members could kill the seven men and dispose of their bodies without any interruption. However, as they couldn't find his full address, Reaz was dropped from the charge sheet.