11 formally charged in court over 2014 murder of Rajshahi University teacher Prof Shafiul Islam

Police have formally charged 11 people over the murder in 2014 of Rajshahi University teacher Prof AKM Shafiul Islam.

Anwar Hossain Ujjal, Convenor of the Rajshahi district unit of BNP's youth affiliate Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, is among the 11 named in the chargesheet.

Investigator Detective Branch Inspector Rezaus Sadiq informed the media about the filing of the chargesheet on Thursday, despite the fact that he filed it on Nov 30.

Sadiq told bdnews24.com he had found no evidence in the investigation linking the militants to the murder.

Prof Islam, a teacher of the sociology department, was murdered as a sequel to a ‘personal dispute’ with the university’s administrative official Nasrin Akhter Reshma, he said.

Islam, a fan of the mystic poet Fakir Lalon Shah, was murdered in front of his house at Chouddapai close to the university on Nov 15 last year.

Those accused in the case, besides Ujjal and Reshma, are Reshma’s husband, former vice-president of the university unit of Chhatra Dal Abdus Samad Pintu, Juba Dal leader Ariful Islam Manik, grocer Sirajul Islam alias ‘Kalu’, Md Sobuj Sheikh, Al Mamun, ‘Arif’, ‘Sagor’, Zinnat Ali, and driver of battery-run auto-rickshaw Ibrahim Khalil alias Tokai Babu.

A group named 'Ansar al Islam Bangladesh-2' claimed credit for the murder on a Facebook page hours into the incident.

The investigator said the claim was aimed at diverting the course of the investigation.

Registrar Entajul Haque filed a case with Motihar Police Station the day after the murder.

Police and Islam’s family had said militants were linked to the murder.

But after the arrest of six persons, including Pintu on Nov 24 last year, RAB said he had been killed over a personal dispute.

The elite force had said Islam had behaved badly with Pintu’s wife Reshma, as a consequence of which Ujjal planned the murder.

Reshma was arrested in March this year. Accused Arif, Sagor, and Ali are also in jail.

Ujjal, however, is still at large.

Islam’s colleague Nilufar Sultana told bdnews24.com that the teachers had been frustrated over the investigation.

“The chargesheet has finally been filed. We have recovered hope,” she said.

She also demanded the trial and punishment of the murderers.