Two ex-RAB officials held, taken on 5-day remand

Our Narayanganj Correspondent :Two former RAB officials, who were allegedly involved in the abduction and killing of seven people in Narayanganj, were placed each on a five-day remand on Saturday.A Narayanganj court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Chandi Rupam granted the remand when police produced sacked Lt Col Tarek Sayeed Mohammad and Major Arif Hossain before it. After 11 hours of their arrest, police produced them before the court around 2:00 pm with a 10-day remand prayer. However, the court granted each of them a five-day remand.Narayanganj police in a drive early Saturday arrested the two sacked RAB officials from Dhaka Cantonment. Later, the two RAB officers were taken to Narayanganj Police Lines.However, police are yet to know the whereabouts of another sacked RAB official Lt Commander SM Masud Rana.Narayanganj police yesterday said they had stepped up their move to arrest Tarek Sayeed and Arif Hossain after receiving the Defence Ministry letter that said there was no legal bar to arresting them. Originally from the army, the two were on deputation in RAB-11 in Narayanganj.Narayanganj police superintendent Khandaker Mahid Uddin said that they did not receive any letter regarding Lt Commander SM Masud Rana, who had been deputed from the Navy. Narayanganj City Corporation panel mayor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker along with five others were abducted and killed on April 27. Later, their bodies were recovered from the Shitalakkhya river on April 29. The family members of Nazrul alleged that RAB-11 Commanding Officer Lt Col Tareq Sayeed Mohammad and two other RAB officials — Major Arif Hossain and Lt Commander SM Masud Rana — killed all the seven persons for Tk 6 crore.On April 28, the authorities concerned had withdrawn all the three RAB-11 officials along with the Narayanganj Superintendent of Police and the Deputy Commissioner.Following the allegations, the Arms Forces Division (AFD) sent Lt Col Tareq Sayeed Mohammad and Major Rana on forced retirement from the Army and Lt Commander SM Masud Rana on forced retirement from the Navy.Meanwhile, lawyers of Narayanganj Bar from a demonstration on Saturday alleged that the arrested two RAB officials were produced before the court without any hand-cuff. They also demanded filing of murder cases against them.  Advocate Shakhawat Hossain, president of Narayanganj Bar Association, in an instant reaction after the arrest of the two RAB officials told journalists that a group of RAB personnel was directly involved in the abduction and killing in Narayanganj. “A team of RAB men called ‘top ten’ involved in the seven murders in Narayanganj. RAB men committed the crime led by Lt Col Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, former Commanding Officer of RAB-11,” he said. This group picked up seven people from the court area and later they killed all of them in exchange of Tk 6 crore from the councilor Nur Hossain, the prime accused of the Narayanganj seven murders, added Shakhawat.He further said, the ten RAB personnel took part in the killing mission and they should be arrested immediately to unearth the mystery behind the killing. Expressing dissatisfaction over the slow progress of the investigation, the Bar President said, we are yet to see any significant progress of the gruesome murder and the main accused are still at large raising many questions about the fairness of the investigation.