Justice delayed is justice denied
No charge sheet yet a year into Sylhet CBA leader murder
L-R: Widow and son and daughter of slain CBA leader Abu Taher are losing hope for justice as no charge sheet has been submitted one year into the gruesome murder. ABU TAHERPhoto: STAR
Police could not file charge sheet nearly one year into the killing of Abu Taher, president of the ruling Awami League-backed CBA of Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution Ltd. There are allegations that investigators could not proceed much in fixing the charges due to alleged involvement of the ruling party backed men with the murder. Police officials claimed the investigation is going on rightly while a source requesting anonymity said the case may be shifted to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from the Detective Branch as the investigations were hampered or misguided. Well behaved by nature, Abu Taher won the CBA polls by defeating city Sramik League chief Abdur Rahman only by two votes. Taher was hacked to death when he was on the way to his office on a motorbike in the morning on June 10 last year. Joint secretary of the CBA-Fazlul Bari Didar was also on the motorbike. "Two motorbike riders stopped us at Rainagar while another bike was following, minutes after our start from the Jalalabad Gas staff quarters. They hit Taher with iron rods and stabbed him severely. I could not identify the attackers," Didar, who was also injured during the incident, told the police and newsmen at the hospital that day. After the killing, Taher's wife and daughter told the newsmen that people in the CBA were involved with the killing as Taher did not agree with some of the wrongdoings at the office and in the CBA. Things were clear from telephonic conversations days before the killing, they said. "Weeks before the murder, Taher had played a role in transferring several employees and taking some important decisions at the office, much to the dissatisfaction of a section of staff," said Taher's wife Afroza. But the woman, now visibly frustrated, is reluctant to say anything over the gruesome killing of her husband. "We do not want to say anything about the murder. Let Allah see everything," Afroza told this correspondent a few days ago. Taher started working to make things well against the backdrop of huge irregularities in the gas office by the previous regime's CBA, said a few people close to him. Just after Taher's murder, police got some clues to it, but they are in great trouble due to pressure from ruling party men, sources claimed. Weeks after the killing, Didar gave a statement before the magistrate's court alleging that some of their colleagues had made the attack. But some quarters claim the delayed statement was made to save the real killers as Didar an hour after the murder told the police and newsmen that he knew none of the attackers. Contacted, the Deputy Commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police Rezaul Karim said a few days ago, "The investigation is in progress. On the basis of confessional statement before the magistrate's court by one of the four people arrested earlier, four others are wanted as yet. We are considering the case as very important and dealing it carefully." "Clique over the CBA election and internal feuds had led to the murder. Taher also faced the wrath of some of his colleagues and officials, as he was against some activities at the office. We are trying to unearth the mystery and arrest the rest of the killer suspects, before filing the charge sheet. It may take some more time," said the investigation officer, Inspector Abdul Awal Chowdhury of the Detective Branch.
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