Col Zia touts Nur Hossain’s repatriation as a ‘great achievement’ of RAB

Bringing back Nur Hossain from India is a ‘great achievement’ of RAB, the force’s Additional Director General Colonel Ziaul Ahsan has claimed.

Nur Hossain Nur Hossain

Screenshot of Ziaul Ahsan's Facebook post. Screenshot of Ziaul Ahsan's Facebook post.

The prime suspect in Narayanganj seven-murder was brought back from India through the Benapole Land Port on Thursday night.

It is seen as a reciprocal gesture because a day earlier, Bangladesh handed ULFA leader Anup Chetia over to Indian authorities.

Hossain was taken to the RAB Headquarters in Dhaka on Friday morning.

The elite police unit handed him to Detective Branch Inspector Mamunur Rashid, who is investigating the multiple murders, after medical checkup.

Additional Director General Colonel Ziaul Ahsan

Col Ahsan on Friday night wrote in a Facebook post, “It was the great achievement by the RAB forces to get Noor Hossain back from Indian authority.”

He later told bdnews24.com that RAB was involved in the entire process of bringing Hossain back.

“Members of our force had been lying in ambush along the border for Nur Hossain for seven days,” he said.

“When we came to know that he had crossed the border and rented a house (in India), we planted a source there.

“We spotted his house through the source and helped the Indian law-enforcing agencies to catch him. We always maintained communication with the law-enforcing agencies there,” he added.

High Court judges in May last year reacted angrily to his statement carried by newspapers about the Narayanganj multiple murders.

A bench had viewed Col Ahsan’s remark that the involvement of victim Nazrul Islam’s father-in-law should be investigated constituted a threat and in clear violation of its order that amounted to contempt.

Former commander of RAB-11 in Narayanganj Tarek Sayeed, and two other officials are among the RAB personnel arrested for the murders of seven last year.

A RAB investigation found their involvement with the murder, and several of them have ostensibly admitted to the crime.

Col Ahsan wrote in the post, “Though this force was involve with this murder but this elite organization could find out the fact within 12 hrs after the incident. Most of the accused was arrested by RAB and handed over to Enquiry officer of Narayanganj police.”

Asked why Hossain was taken to the RAB headquarters instead of him being handed over to police, the senior official said BGB handed him to RAB on ‘security grounds’.

After the murder of seven in April last year, Nazrul Islam’s father-in-law Shahidul had alleged that Hossain bribed RAB officials Tk 60 million to carry out the murders.

When Col Ahsan claimed within weeks of the murders that Hossain had fled to India, Shahidul alleged that RAB helped him to flee.

“Ziaul Ahsan has sent Nur Hossain abroad to save RAB,” he had claimed.

The committee formed following the High Court orders questioned Col Ahsan for four hours on July 17 last year ‘to find out how much they knew about the involvement of its officials arrested over the murders’.

The then RAB chief Mokhlesur Rahman was also questioned.