Zakaria, who escaped prison alongside 3 other death row inmates, is son of a municipal mayor

Municipal Mayor Abdul Mannan is acting president of the Kahalu Upazila BNP unit

Md Zakaria, one of the four inmates who escaped the Bogura District Prison by breaking through the roof of their condemned cells, is the son of Kahalu Municipal Mayor Abdul Mannan.

The four inmates escaped the Jafalong Building of the prison around 3:55am on Wednesday but were caught by police some 15 minutes later.

The other escapees were identified as Md Nazrul Islam Manzur, 60, Md Farid Sheikh, 28, and Amir Hamza, 38.

They were all sentenced in connection with murder cases.

“I was not here at the time,” said Selim Reza, chief of Kahalu Police Station. “As far as I know, Zakaria was sentenced to death for the murder of 13-year-old school student Naimul Islam Nayeem, the son of Rafiqul Islam from Kahalu’s Rostam Chapar village.”

Zakaria and his accomplice kidnapped Nayeem, police said, citing the case documents. They then demanded Tk 500,000 from his family for his release. When they did not get the money, they burnt the child to death in a brick kiln.

Judge Hafizur Rahman of the Bogura First Additional District and Sessions Judges court sentenced Zakaria and his accomplice Dalim to death in the case of the murder on Jan 25, 2017.

Attempts were made to contact Abdul Mannan - Zakaria’s father, the municipal mayor of Kahalu, and the acting president of the Upazila’s BNP unit – but his phone was turned off.