Of The Murderers

Bishwajit Das being beaten up by BCL activists in Old Dhaka during an opposition blockade on Sunday. See page 19 for photos showing the sequence of actions that killed Bishwajit, who had nothing to do with the blockade.Photo: STAR

Thirteen-year-old Saiful Islam could not keep his eyes open when Chhatra League armed cadres were striking Bishwajit Das with machetes and iron rods inside a clinic, Intensive Dental Care. The attackers would not care how pitifully their victim would beg for his life.
While recalling the Sunday's attack inside the clinic at Johnson Road in Old Dhaka, the boy reacted abnormally. He said he could not sleep that night as the sickening scenes of the attack kept coming back before his mind's eyes.
“I was so scared that I hid in another room when they hacked Bishwajit with machetes and other sharp weapons,” Saiful, who works at the clinic, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Wailing and grieving parents and relatives of Bishwajit in the meantime cremated him at Naria in Shariatpur on Sunday.
Among the group of 10-12 attackers, The Daily Star has managed to identify five BCL activists who directly took part in the murder. They are all students of Jagannath University (JnU) and are activists of the university's Chhatra League unit, according to their political peers, general students and eyewitnesses who know them.
But the killing of Bishwajit was not the first crime that the five have been involved with. In the past, they committed other crimes as well, including assaulting a female teacher and stalking female students of the university.
But thanks to their link with the ruling Awami League, police never took any action against them.
Police on Sunday night filed a case against 15-16 unnamed people in connection with the killing, but none was arrested as of last night.

Identity of RAFIQUL
Identity of NOORE ALAM
Identity of MAHFUZUR
Identity of OBHIDUL
Identity of EMDADUL