Bangabandhu killer Majed was in contact with family

One of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s killers, Abdul Majed, would keep in contact with his family who were in Dhaka. He would often phone his physician daughter and his brother who lived in Chattogram. Sources in Kolkata feel that the intelligence in Bangladesh traced his whereabouts in Kolkata through these phone calls. However, no one is saying anything about how he came to Dhaka. Former diplomats and politicians feel that it was the Indian government that handed him over to Bangladesh.

On 7 April the police showed Majed as arrested and then handed home over to the court. The police report submitted to the court stated that in the early hours of 6 April he had been in a rickshaw near the Gabtali bus stand, arousing suspicion. When questioned, his answers seemed contradictory. But he finally identified himself.

However, the next day, on 7 April, law minister Anisul Haque told the media during a press briefing at his residence, that Majed had been picked up at Mirpur sector 11 and a half.

Majed was hanged at minute past midnight on 12 April at the Dhaka Central Jail. He was buried at a village in Narayanganj. However, none of his family members were present at the funeral. Members of his family have kept their phones switched off since his hanging and they are not speaking to anyone.

After his arrest, Majed told the public prosecutor (PP) Hemayet Uddin about his stay abroad. He said he had been in Kolkata for the past 22 to 23 years. He reportedly said that he had come to Dhaka mid-March this year and had been staying in Dhaka.

After the assassination of Bangabandhu, Majed also left the country along with Rashid and Farooq. After a stint at a Bangladesh diplomatic mission abroad, he even joined the foreign ministry. When it was obvious that Awami League would win the national election on 12 June 1996, he fled the country along with Dalim and Rashid. He first went to India at the time, then went on to Pakistan and from there to Libya. He later came back to India, though it is not ascertained when he began residing in India permanently.

Kolkata’s daily Bartaman published a three-part report on Majed’s stay there. Journalist of Bartaman, Sujit Bhowmik, told Prothom Alo that Majed left his house on 22 February this year and never returned after that. He thinks that 22 February was the last day for Majed as a fugitive in India.

Sujit Bhowmik said Majed had lived in two houses in Kolkata, one in Park Street and the other in Taltola. He lived for 9 years in Taltola and 10 years in the Park Street House. He left the Park Street house at 10 in the morning on 22 February, to go to hospital. He first stopped at a local pharmacy and then was walking towards Ripon Street. Two people were following him.

CCTV footage from the area show two people were waiting outside the house and started following him after he emerged. Two others joined them after some time. He crossed Alimuddin Road and was going along AJC Bose Road and that is when the four men were first seen to talk to Majed.

Majed then got onto at bus coming from the Moulali direction on the Salt Lake- Santragachhi route. The four also got into the bus. There was no more CCTV footage after that. He did not get down anywhere between Alimuddin Street bus stop and Kolkata’s PG Hospital.

The last location on Majed’s mobile phone was at Malda district. Sources in Kolkata believe that these four took him in a long-winded route to finally hand him over to Bangladesh authorities. The Indian intelligence had reportedly detained him and kept them in custody all that time.

The Sangbad Protidin report said that Majed managed to get an Indian voter ID card in 2012 while in Kolkata. In 2017 he got an Indian passport. He used the name Ahmed Ali in the passport. The passport was valid up till 2027. Majed’s birthplace in the passport was recorded as Howrah, Kolkata. He was actually born in Borhanduddin, Bhola.

Majed got married for the second time while in Kolkata. After he went missing from Kolkata on 22 February, his wife filed a general diary (GD) at the Park Street police station. While investigating this matter, the police found a bag in Majed’s house in which there was a passport, ration cards and other documents.

There was a photograph of a woman and three children in the bag too. The police suspect the woman in the photograph was Majed’s wife in Bangladesh, Saleha Begum. Majed’s wife in Park Street told the police that Majed never let anyone touch this bag. Whenever he came home, he would lock the gate from inside. He was known in Park Street as an English teacher Ali Ahmed. The local people thought he had graduated from St Xavier’s College. He would teach English at people’s houses and also was a money-lender. He lived in a rented house in Park Street but had made a Tk 2.5 million down payment on a flat in Taltola.

‘No idea Majed was a killer’

When this correspondent spoke over the phone to Majed’s wife in Kolkata, Zarina Begum, she said she and Majed got married around eight or nine years ago. They have a 6-year-old daughter, Syeda Ayesha Siddiqua Homaira.

Zarina Begum said, "I had no idea that Majed was the killer of such a big leader in Bangladesh. If I knew that, perhaps we wouldn’t have got married. We thought his name was Ahmed Ali. That was the name under which he married me.”

Zarina first learnt about Majed being arrested from a Facebook post of her younger sister’s husband Nazimuddin Mullick. When asked if the Kolkata police has informed her about Majed being hanged, Zarina said, “The Park Street police showed me his picture and asked if he was my husband. After I said it was, they took it from me in writing that Majed was my husband and had been hanged in Bangladesh.”

Zarina said, “Before that the police had called me several times and wanted to know about Majed. He was a quiet man, would never talk much. If I tried to ask him any details, he would get angry. I told the police whatever I know.”

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Zarina’s sister’s husband Nazimuddin Mullick said that they were from the village Kismat Baman of Bagnan thana in Howrah district, West Bengal. There was a Hakkani darbar sharif (religious centre) near their home in the village and Majed used to go there regularly at one time. It was through a person at this darbar sharif that Majed met and married Zarina.