Tarequl Islam alias Tariq (28) used to have hair and a big beard, but he shaved off both in an attempt to hide his identity. He was hiding out in the home of a distant relative at a village in the remote haor (wetland) area of Derai upazila in Sunamganj. RAB arrested him from there are 7:00pm Tuesday.
Tarequl Islam is one of the accused in the gang-rape of a young woman in the MC College hostel of Sylhet. He is listed as accused No. 2 in the case. He is from the village Umedpur of Paschim Birgaon union, Dakkhin Sunamganj upazila in Sunamganj. Members of RAB’s Sunamganj company (CPC-3) searched various areas of Sunamganj throughout Tuesday and finally arrested him from the village Borma of Jagdal union.
Officer of RAB Sunamganj company and senior assistant superintendent of police Abdullah Russel said that Tarequl had been sitting on a bed in that house. He had shaved off his hair and beard while in hiding.
One of the RAB Sunamganj company officers said that on Monday night they received information that Tarequl Had gone to Derai. Three teams of RAB began the search and, using technology to access phone conversations of Tarequl’s family, they interrogated a few of them. They then conducted their search based on their information.
Jagdal union parishad (UP) chairman Shibli Ahmed said after Tarequl was arrested, it was learnt that he had spent two days hiding in a house in the village Bhatiargaon. Then on Tuesday he shifted to Ali Hossain’s house in the village Borma. He had been looking at his mobile phone screen, sitting in a small tin-roofed house when he was caught. He raised both hands in the air when RAB entered the room.
A young woman was gang raped on Friday night at the Sylhet MC College hostel. The woman’s husband filed charges with the Shahparan police station in Sylhet city against nine persons, naming six.
Police arrested Saifur Rahman, prime accused in the case, on Sunday morning from Chhatak, Sylhet. Four others were arrested one by one by the police and RAB.
Tarequl Islam was the last one to be arrested. Two other suspects, not named in the charges, have also been arrested in the case. All the accused in the case are Chhatra League activists.