AMIN BAZAR STUDENT KILLING: 8 Cops Closed For Negligence

Eight policemen, including two sub-inspectors of Savar police station, were closed to the police lines on Sunday for their alleged negligence in rescuing the six students who were beaten to death by a mob at Aminbazar on July 18 night.



Dhaka additional superintendent of police Sheikh Rafiqul Islam told reporters, 'They were closed in a departmental procedure in line with a judicial probe report.'



The one-member judicial inquiry committee of Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Utpal Chowdhury submitted the report to the Supreme Court registrar AKM Shamsul Islam on September 8.



In the report, the judicial probe body found that the six lynched youths were innocent students, not robbers.



Soon after the incident, the Savar police filed a murder case against 500 to 600 unnamed villagers stating that the locals had killed six suspected robbers.



Besides, a local sand dealer, Abdul Malek, filed another case against the six victims with Savar police station on charge of robbery.



The judicial probe report held the negligence of the policemen, who were on duty at the spot during the beating, including Savar police sub-inspectors Anwar Hossain and Haris Sikder, in rescuing the youths.



The police on Sunday closed Anwar and Haris along with constables Habibur Rahman, Nazmul Hossain, Shohel Miah, Saidur Rahman, Shaheen Miah and Khairul Islam, the police official said.



Sitaf Jabi Munib, a student of Bangladesh University of Business and Technology, and Shams Rahim Shamam of Maple Leaf International School, Tipu Sultan of Tejgaon College, Towhidur Rahman Palash, Kamruzzaman Kanto and Ibrahim Khalil of Mirpur Bangla College were beaten to death by a group of youths at Aminbazar in Savar early on July 18.



The lone survivor of the incident, Al Amin, told reporters that the police had taken him to a hospital in Savar after he, being seriously injured in the beating, repeatedly requested them to save his life.



He also said that the police were present during the beating and did not try to save the students.



'The policemen asked me to tell the media that we [the victims] went to Keblyarchar to smoke cannabis at night,' Al Amin had told media recently.



Sub-inspector Anwar, however, claimed that on information he had reached the spot and found all but Al Amin dead.



'We rescued Al Amin and sent him to hospital for treatment,' he told reporters on Sunday.



Al Amin said they had come under attack while on an outing in Aminbazar.



But, villagers claimed that they had surrounded the youths when they were preparing to commit a robbery.



Malek, who sued the victims on robbery charge, however, made different statements about the incident to different media after filing the case.



As the victims were identified by the respective families later on the day, the Savar police filed a murder case against 500 to 600 unnamed villagers and arrested only two people since then.



On July 21, the government appointed an inquiry committee comprising four police officers, headed by deputy inspector general of police Mohammad Amin Uddin, in response to a High Court order issued on July 20.



The High Court bench of Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif on July 20 directed the home secretary, inspector general of police, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, deputy commissioner and Dhaka superintendent of police, and the officers-in-charge of the Savar and Ashulia police stations to explain in ten days why they should not be directed to take punitive action against the persons responsible for lynching of the six students.



They were also asked to explain why their inaction and failure to protect the six youths, studying in various reputable institutions in Dhaka, from the mob should not be declared unlawful.



The court also asked the respondents to explain why they should not be directed to compensate the families of the deceased and to the surviving victims.



The court gave the directive after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by Tajul Islam, challenging the government's inaction during and after the horrendous incident of lynching.



The same bench on August 3 ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident.



It asked the Dhaka chief judicial magistrate to assign a judicial magistrate to conduct the inquiry and to submit the report to the High Court in a month.



The court ordered the judicial inquiry after hearing a supplementary petition filed by Tajul Islam.



Moving the petition, Tajul had told the court that the police inquiry committee visited the spot on July 24 and recorded the depositions of some local people, all of whom were chosen by the local police.



He also mentioned that the six students were beaten to death at Amin Bazaar in the presence of police and so the police could not ensure a fair inquiry into the incident.



Local sources said that some influential people of the area in connivance of Savar police had called some locals and briefed them about what statements they would make to the probe body.



On August 23, Al Amin alleged that a member of the government probe body had threatened to torture him by remanding him in custody, according to media reports.



For further enquiry, the committee took Al Amin from his Darussalam house to Keblyarchar although the lone survivor maintained that the place of occurrence was near the Aminbazar Bridge.



Al Amin, now on bail in the robbery case, said that on the spot, a committee member in plain clothes had told him that his statement contradicted the villagers' account.



'The investigator was frequently asking me to tell them the "truth", otherwise my bail would be cancelled and I would be remanded in custody,' he said on August 23.



The members of the committee refused to talk about the allegation.