A Dhaka court today ordered police to publish an advertisement in two national dailies asking four fugitives in Abrar Fahad murder case to appear before it on January 13.

The fugitives are Buet BCL deputy office secretary (sacked) Mustafa Rafid and its members Morsheduzzaman Jishan, Ehtashamul Rabbi Tanim (sacked), and Morshed Amartya Islam.

The 21 other charge-sheeted accused in the case are now in jail.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Kaisarul Islam passed the order after receiving a report on execution of arrest warrant issued earlier against the four.

Meanwhile, Moniruzaman Monir, now in jail, submitted a petition for withdrawal of his confessional statement given by him earlier before a magistrate.

In his petition, Monir said he was forced to give the statement while he was on remand.

In the petition, Monir mentioned that Detective Branch of police took him on remand on October 9 last year. During the remand, he was tortured inhumanly so that he agreed to give confessional statement.

The court, however, kept in the petition into the case file.

Accepting the charge sheet against 25 accused in Buet student Abrar Fahad murder case, a Dhaka court on November 18 last year issued arrest warrants for the four accused as they were shown fugitives in the charge sheet. 

On October 7, Abrar, a second-year student of electrical and electronics engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, was beaten to death by a group of BCL men at the university’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall.

On the same day, Abrar’s father Barkatullah filed a murder case against 19 Buet students with Chawkbazar Police Station. All are among the charge-sheeted accused.

On November 13, DB Inspector Mohammad Wahiduzaman, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka.

Of the 25 charge-sheeted accused, 17 are members of the Buet BCL unit. Most of them have been expelled by the pro-Awami League student body. Buet suspended 19 of the accused.

Eight of the accused made confessional statements before magistrates narrating the horrifying torture. Sixty people are prosecution witnesses in the case.