'Drag him to the dark and beat him', attacker said while assaulting Rabbani

A group of miscreants swooped down on journalist Golam Rabbani on Monday night while he was headed by motorbike at Pathati intersection of Bakshiganj in Jamalpur, said police, adding he was dragged out of close circuit television (CCTV) coverage to avoid detection.

The law enforcement agency learnt this after scrutinising a 32-second CCTV footage, which also went viral on social media, sparking huge outcry for the justice.   

It is seen in the footage that Golam Rabbani's motorbike was crossing the Pathati intersection at 10:17 pm. All of a sudden, an unidentified person intercepted his movement and pushed him to the ground. Five or six miscreants already there, started beating him up. An attacker was heard to say, "Drag him to the dark and beat him."

Later, he was taken out of the CCTV camera surveillance and beaten mercilessly. At one stage, the miscreants left him unconscious.

Police said they have identified the miscreants. Efforts are underway to detain them. Six have already been detained. No case in this incident has been filed yet.

Locals said when the journalist lost his conscious, the attackers fled the scene. There were a few people next to the scene, but nobody came forward to rescue Golam Rabbani, Jamalpur district correspondent of Banglanews24. He, also the Bakshiganj correspondent of Ekattor Television, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital.

It is being alleged that he was killed at the orders of Mahmudul Alam, chairman of Sadhurpara union parishad (UP) of the upazila, because of certain reports.

Rabbani's wife Monira Begum told journalists that Mahmudul, also the general secretary of Sadhurpara union Awami-League (AL), had earlier tried to harass him in different ways. The followers of the chairman killed him. She demanded exemplary punishment of the killers.

Bakshiganj police station officer-in-charge Mohammad Sohel Rana told Prothom Alo that six were detained scrutinising the CCTV footage. Police are conducting drives to detain the rest. The attackers have gone into hiding after the incident. However, they will be caught by any means. No case has been filed yet with any police station over the murder.