Col Ziaul questioned over 7 murders

The committee investigating the Narayanganj murders has questioned Rapid Action Battalion’s (RAB) Additional Director General Col Ziaul Ahsan for four hours.

“Three RAB officers have been arrested as suspects. So we’ve called a RAB official to find out how much they knew,” said Shahjahan Ali, additional secretary to the public administration ministry, who is heading the probe.

Col Ziaul went into the Secretariat at 10am on Thursday and came out at 1:50pm.

“I answered all the committee’s questions and told them what they needed to know about the murders,” he told reporters waiting outside.

Seven including Narayanganj City Councillor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar were abducted from the city’s court premises on Apr 27. Their bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya River a few days later.

Former Lt Col Tarek Sayeed, commander of RAB-11 was removed along with former Maj Arif Hossain and former Lt Commander MM Rana even before the bodies were found.

Soon they were sent packing from their units and were arrested by police.

They have all provided confessional testimonies before a Narayanganj court.

Slain councillor Nazrul Islam’s father-in-law Shahidul Islam had accused the RAB officers of Tk 60 million for carrying out the murders.

When asked if the top RAB official is himself a suspect, the probe committee chief Shahjahan said, “You’ll get to know later. He wasn’t called here as an individual but as a member of the elite force.”

He was asked whether the committee will grill Awami League leader, Narayanganj MP Shamim Osman and prime suspect Narayanganj’s Ward-4 Councillor Nur Hossain.

“You’ll know in due time,” he replied.

Their inquiry, which has seen 350 people grilled so far, made significant progress, he claimed.

“The committee will sit and decide who else should be questioned.”

The administrative probe committee was constituted on May 7 following an order of the High Court. It has been tasked to find if the law enforcers were involved in the murders in any way or whether they neglected to find the abductees alive.

Col Ziaul Ahsan, in an interview published in the ‘Daily Jugantor’ on May 12, said Nazrul’s father-in-law, who raised the accusations against the RAB officers, should also be investigated to find out his role behind the deaths.

The judges took notice of Shahidul’s reaction reported by newspapers following the RAB official’s comment.

The head of the probe committee, however, did not clarify if Ziaul was called over those comments.

Allegations against Col Ziaul suggested he knew about the murders beforehand.

He was leaving the Secretariat when he was asked about the claim.

“You’ll get to know later, the probe is headed the right way.”