Please - Odhikar

Allegation Against Police of Killing a Political Activist
On getting informed on 20 August, from national newspapers of the death of a political activist
by police, Odhikar conducted a fact-finding of the incident and talked to the family of the
victim, local inhabitants, police and hospital authorities.
The victim, Suman Ahmed (26) was the second of nine children of Abdul Malek of Shahidnagar,
Lalbagh, Dhaka. He was general secretary of ward # 60 of the Volunteers League, an associate
organization of the opposition Awami League. He was married and had a son. According to his
wife Doly Begum (20), Suman and his family were sleeping at home in the evening of 18
August. At around 1 am, police knocked at their door. Sensing police presence, Suman went out
through the window of their first floor room. His wife opened the door and police made a search
inside their house. Suman's wife saw two informers, Nirob and Sayeed, with the police. Nirob
took the police force to the back of the house. After a while, police left and she and her brotherin-law
Suzan started looking for Suman. Suzan climbed up to the roof of the two-storied
building in search of his brother and after a while shouted from there, "Suman bhai is lying
here." She rushed there and found Suman's body stuck between the roofs of two houses. An
electric wire was lying over his body. Suzan took the dead body out of the gap. She further said
that police informer Nirob had come to their home that noon, had lunch with them and
demanded Taka 10 thousand from Suman. Suman refused to pay that and this is why Nirob
killed Suman with help from police.
Younger brother of the victim, Suzan, told Odhikar that on the same night at around 1 am, he
heard some loud voice and coming out of his room, he found his sister-in-law (Suman's wife)
talking to police. He listened to Nirob, police informer, telling someone over a cell-phone that
Suman had died. After police left, they started searching for Suman and found him lying on the
roof of their house. He found an electric wire over Suman's body. He removed the wire and
brought down Suman's body. They took the body immediately to Dhaka Medical College
Hospital where the on-duty physicians declared Suman dead.
Suman's father Abdul Malek told Odhikar that he came to know of Suman's death after Suman
was taken to hospital. He further said that Suman, as general secretary of ward # 60 Volunteers
League, observed the death anniversary of Bangabandhu on 15 August 2005 with a big
arrangement. He is of the opinion that after that event, local BNP leaders killed Suman through
SI Mahfuz, SI Atiar and police informer Nirob of Lalbagh police station.
A local grocery shop owner, Abdul Kader, told Odhikar that at around 12.45 am that evening,
three plain-clothes policemen came to his shop and told him to close it. He immediately closed
his shop and went back home. After a while, on hearing loud voices, while having dinner, he
came out of his house and came to know that Suman's condition had become critical due to a
massive electric shock and he had been taken to hospital.
Suman's arresting officer, SI Mahfuz, told Odhikar that police went to Suman's house on the
evening 18 August to arrest him with an arrest warrant. Suman's wife opened the door of the
house and after searching, they found that Suman had fled. Then he and his police force returned
to the police station. The next morning, he came to know that Suman had died. SI Mahfuz
further informed Odhikar that a few cases were filed against Suman, but he could not tell the
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Report 2005