Former Deputy Attorney General Succumbs To Police Torture

Supreme Court bar association leader and former deputy attorney general Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed, widely reported in the media as M.U. Ahmed who was allegedly tortured after being arrested on 11 August and fell terminally ill afterwards, has died at Square Hospital in police custody Friday afternoon.



His widow, Selina Ahmed, has filed a case against home minister Advocate Sahara Khatun, attorney general Mahbubey Alam, home secretary, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Benazir Ahmed, a deputy commissioner of the Dhaka police's detective branch and Shahbagh thana officer-in-charge on charge of killing of the former deputy attorney general.



Lawyers led by Supreme Court Bar Association president Khandker Mahbub Hossain later on the day submitted the first information report (FIR), on behalf of the deceased's widow at about 10:30pm. The FIR was issued at Ramna thana.



It has been told from Ramna thana that the complaint was received but decision yet not came on whether it would be recorded as a case or a general diary. A Ramna thana official said the officer-in-charge (OC) was not at office, causing the decision to fall under pendency.



Ramna thana (OC) is also an accused in the complaint.



Khandker Mahbub said, 'Selina Ahmed filed a case on murder charge. We have submitted the FIR and the police have given us a copy after receiving it.'



Selina filed the FIR accusing the home minister, attorney general and four others of killing her husband in a planned way, Mahbub said adding, 'Now she wants justice.'



As the news spread, several hundred lawyers and activists of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party went out on demonstrations in front of Square Hospital and on the Supreme Court premises describing his death in custody as a 'planned murder.'



The leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia, also BNP chairperson, senior party leaders and senior Supreme Court lawyers condemned MU Ahmed's death in custody and called it a 'premeditated murder'.



The angry protesters also chased attorney general Mahbubey Alam when he went to the hospital after hearing the news. They jeered at him shouting 'killer'. Large contingents of police in riot gear were deployed inside the hospital after he went in.



The BNP has announced countrywide demonstrations wearing black badges for today.