Journo murder: Golam Dastagir shown arrested

Former textile and jute minister and Awami League lawmaker (Narayanganj-1) Golam Dastagir Gazi was shown arrested yesterday in a case filed over the death of journalist Hasan Mahmud at Khilgaon during the quota reform movement on July 31.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Syful Islam passed the order after Investigation Officer Md Azizul Haque Bhuiyan, a sub-inspector of Khilgaon Police Station, produced him before the court and submitted an application in this regard.

"Dastagir is an FIR-named accused in the case and it is needed to show him arrested," the IO said in his forwarding report.

On August 25, Dastagir was picked up from Dhaka's Shantinagar. Later, he was placed for a six-day remand in a murder case filed with Rupganj Police Station. He was also shown arrested in two more murder cases.

Hasan Mahmud, also president of the Dhaka south unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Road Transport Workers Party, went missing after he went out of his house in Mugda on July 31.

His family later learned he had been taken away by 50/60 unidentified individuals in plainclothes.

Mahmud was found later in front of the Gorhan Chhapra Mosque and was pronounced dead at Mugda Medical College Hospital on that day.

The complainant also alleged that Hasan Mahmud was killed during the student protests.

Following the incident, victim's wife Fatema filed the case against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Dastagir and 33 others with a Dhaka court on August 29.

The court accepted the complaint and directed the officer-in-charge of Khilgaon Police Station to register it as a regular case.