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Published : 06 Sep 2016, 07:13 PM
Terror-busting SP Babul Aktar resigns, govt to decide soon
SP Babul breaks silence with Facebook post
SP Babul Aktar says he was called to discuss his wife’s murder
In a circular issued on Tuesday, the home ministry said that the move came on the back of the decorated officer’s request to go into retirement.
Rumours that the terror-busting SP was being retired had spread when he was taken to the Detective Branch (DB) offices in Dhaka for questioning a month into his wife Mahmuda Aktar Mitu's murder.
No reaction from Babul was available to Tuesday's development.
His phone was found switched off after he had left the home of his in-laws at Banasree following the home ministry order. Relatives have also said they are yet to find him.
A rumour of his immediate arrest has started swirling with Mitu murder case's investigation officer Md Kamruzzaman, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police’s DB, currently staying in the capital.
Asked whether Babul had any connection to his wife's killing, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque on Tuesday night told bdnews24.com: "We have found no concrete evidence that would suggest he was. But our investigation is ongoing."
Babul himself had started the case over the murder. But there was no legal bar to his arrest if evidence suggests any link between him and the murder, said Hoque.
The counter-terror officer, lauded for his work against militancy operations in Chittagong and Cox's Bazar, was promoted and moved to Police Headquarters in the capital only a few days before his wife was killed.
On the morning of Jun 5, Mitu was walking their 6-year-old son to the school bus when she was stopped by assailants near GEC Intersection in the port city.
She was stabbed and then shot in the head as one of her attackers pulled the child out of the way.
Police initially suspected militants had carried out the murder, but after making several arrests, they now say they are yet to find the motive.
Until now, Chittagong police said they arrested five persons in the case. Also, two suspected killers have been shot dead in so-called shootouts.
After Mitu's murder, Babul had moved to his in-laws' with his two children and has since been living there.
Babul Akter. File photo
With police making no clear statements about the interrogation, rumours began to spread that investigators were suspecting Babul had a hand in the murder.
Amid the rumours swirling, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said on Aug 14 that his ministry had received Babul’s resignation letter.
In the meantime, Babul was seen at the Police Headquarters, but senior officials had confirmed bdnews24.com that he did not resume work.
Amid the speculations, IGP Hoque had said Babul did not want to continue with his job due to mental distress, but media reports suggested that he was forced to hand in a resignation letter.
The home ministry's circular, signed by Deputy Secretary Md Ilias Hossain, relieving Babul of his duties has come 22 days after Kamal's remarks.
bdnews24.com had tried to reach Babul on his mobile phone several times after the circular was issued in the afternoon. He did not take the call at first and later his phone was found switched off.
In the evening, his father-in-law Mosharraf Hossain told bdnews24.com, "Babul left home in the afternoon. He hasn't returned yet."
Mosharraf said he saw the news on the home ministry circular but he does not know anything beyond it.
However, phones of Mosharraf and his family members were found switched off later as well.
But Babul's father, a former police inspector, told bdnews24.com that he was unable to reach his son as well.
Amidst all the rumours, Babul had been tight-lipped until Aug 13, when he took the social media to express himself.
“I hear my daughter’s cries, all her lamenting, when so many are busy making up new stories...I’m not wearing any armour, I’m holding in my arms two children who have lost their mother...I can neither bear, nor stop these assaults,” he had posted on Facebook.
On Aug 22, he wrote again on Facebook reacting to a report on him published by a daily. Since then, there has been no activity on his Facebook profile.
