'Miraz gagged to death'

Ahmed Miraz was gagged to death, officials said on Sunday afternoon confirming speculations of a possible homicide after the body was sent for autopsy earlier in the day.

Miraz was younger brother of lyricist, music director Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul.

Dhaka Medical College and Hospital Forensic Department lecturer Sohel Mahmud told bdnews24.com of the autopsy report. “Though no visible wounds were apparent, Miraz had blood clots inside his mouth, in the back of his head and inside his chest. His nose was broken.”

“I think his mouth was stuffed and then he was gagged to death.”

Mahmud put the time of murder around 10:00pm Saturday night. “He had eaten something two hours before his death… Remains of half-digested food was retrieved from his stomach.”

Railway police recovered the body east of Khilkhet-Kuril flyover around 1:00am Sunday, Khilkhet Police Station OC Shamim Hossain told bdnews24.com.

He said the body was not hit by train. “Foam was coming out of his mouth leading to believe this was a case of homicide during initial inspections.”

No major injury marks were seen on Miraz’s body, however, but blood had apparently flowed out from his nose to his ear, Khilkhet Police Station Sub-Inspector Golam Faruk told bdnews24.com after initial inspections.

The family feels that the murder owes to Bulbul’s testimony against Jamaat-e-Islami Guru Ghulam Azam at International Crimes Tribunal-1.

Earlier in the day, Miraz’s body was taken to the Moghbazar residence of Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul. Relatives were devastated by the death.

Miraz, 48, ran a Clearing and Forwarding (C&F) agency at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, his cousin Golam Mostafa told bdnews24.com. “Miraz lived in his sister’s home in Pallabi… he went out Saturday morning… His body was recovered at night.”

Miraz was the youngest among his family of five brothers and three sisters, he said.

Bulbul had testified that before his very eyes the Pakistani army took away police officer Shiru Mia and his son Kamal along with 36 others from Brahmanbaria jail for killing. He said he had later heard that all 38 had been killed at Koiratola on that November night, which was the night of Eid-ul-Fitr in 1971.

On Friday, Tanvir Mohammad Twaki, 17, son of Rafiur Rabbi, the convener of the Narayanganj replica of Shahbagh’s ‘Ganajagaran Mancha’, was found dead on the Shitalakkhya river there, two days after he had gone missing.

Family members suspect that Twaki was killed by goons of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Wahidul Alam Junu, who had deposed on Feb 12 as the 19th witness against Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, has also mysteriously died in February.

Intelligence officials believe there is a 'systematic attempt' to terrorise both witnesses against those facing war crimes trials and also the organisers of the Ganajagaran movement.

On Friday afternoon, four homemade bombs exploded near the Ganajagaran Mancha, the nerve centre of the anti-Jamaat protest, leaving a senior RAB official injured.

Hours before, on Thursday night, unknown miscreants stabbed Saniur Rahman, a blogger supporting the Shahbagh movement in the city's Pallabi.

On Feb 15 night, another blogger and Shahbagh civil uprising activist Ahmed Rajib Haider was murdered in front of the gate of his house at Palash Nagar in Pallabi.

Rajib’s friends and family say he was murdered by assailants linked to Jamaat and Shibir.

Detectives on Mar 2 arrested the five students of North South University for their alleged involved in the killing. Two machetes, four knives, one bicycle, one pair of shoes, seven cellphones and a school bag were recovered from them.

Two of them admitted to police that they were directly engaged in the murder, while three others assisted them. They also admitted that a Shibir activist orchestrated the killing of blogger Rajib.

The Jamaat and Shibir activists have unleashed a wave of deadly violence after the International Crimes Tribunal-2 on Feb 28 handed down death sentence on party number two Delwar Hossain Sayedee for war crimes.

According to media reports, over 80 people were killed in the past 10 days as Jamaat members clashed with police and rival groups in protest against the verdict.