Court Correspondent :
Former Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor and 41 other Awami League leaders and activists have been sued in a case filed on Sunday over the murder of a BNP leader in Nilphamari in 2014.
The victim is Golam Rabbani, Organizing Secretary of BNP’s Lakshmichap Union unit under Nilphamari Sadar Upazila.
His wife Shahnahaz Begum filed the case 10 years after the murder, saying she could not file the case all this time for fear of political reprisal.
The complaint was lodged with Nilphamari Senior Judicial Magistrate Cognizance Court-1 on Monday.
The court accepted the complaint and instructed Nilphamari Sadar Police to record it as a First Information Report (FIR), said Nilphamari Sadar Police Station Inspector (Investigation) MR Saeed.
The accused include Nilphamari district unit Awami League President and former Mayor Dewan Kamal Ahmed, the Awami League unit’s General Secretary Momtazul Haque, and other senior party leaders. Some 1,000 unidentified individuals were also made accused in the case.
Named as the prime accused, Noor allegedly instigated the murder.
According to the case statement, on December 13 of 2013, Awami League activists stormed Rabbani’s house with the intent to kill him following an attack on Noor’s motorcade.
When Rabbani was not found, his family members were assaulted, and the house was set on fire.
On January 15, 2014, Rabbani was abducted from his home by men identifying themselves as detectives. Four days later, his body was discovered at a bamboo grove next to the Nilphamari-Domar road.
The complainant, Shahanaz, stated that she and her children had to go into hiding for several months following her husband’s murder.
On December 14, 2013, BNP-Jamaat men allegedly attacked the convoy of Asaduzzaman Noor in Ramganj Haat area of Saidpur Upazila while he was returning from a visit to the affected northern districts after atrocities allegedly caused by Jamaat and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Five people including four Awami League men were killed in the attack. Noor, however, narrowly escaped.
Police filed a case over the attack, and Golam Rabbani was made the prime accused.
About 60 BNP-Jamaat leaders and activists were arrested in this connection.
Noor, an actor, was also named as the prime accused in a separate case filed on August 4 over vandalism, looting, and arson at various locations in Nilphamari, with allegations of ordering security forces to open fire with the intent to kill protesters.
On Sunday night, Noor was arrested from Bailey Road area in the capital. He was produced before a court on Monday in connection with the Siam murder case filed with the Mirpur Model Police Station.