Confession, finally

Tareque Sayeed

After being on remand for 31 days, sacked Rab official Lt Col Tareque Sayeed Mohammad yesterday made confessional statement before a Narayanganj court in connection with the seven-murder in the city.
The former commanding officer of Rab-11 made the statement under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in two cases, said court sources.
District Senior Judicial Magistrate KM Mohiuddin later ordered to send him to jail.  
Meanwhile, India yesterday officially informed Bangladesh about the arrest of Nur Hossain, the prime accused in the gruesome seven-murder, according to foreign ministry sources.
A court source said Tareque knew about the developments of the abduction and killing of the seven. But he did not meddle in the matter as the whole thing was being monitored by one of his superiors.
The Daily Star, however, could not independently verify Tareque's confessional statement.
Contacted, ATM Habibur Rahman, director at the legal and media wing of Rab, said he does not know what Tareque confessed to the court.
Earlier, sacked Rab-11 officials Maj Arif Hossain and Lt Commander MM Rana made confessional statements admitting their involvement in the seven-murder.
Seven people, including Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar, were abducted in Narayanganj on April 27.
Three days later, six bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya, while the other was recovered from the river the following day.
Nazrul's father-in-law Shahidul Islam complained that Nur Hossain, councillor of ward-4, and a few others had bribed some Rab-11 officials Tk 6 crore to kill the panel mayor.
Tareque, Arif and Rana were fired and later arrested for their alleged involvement in the incident.
In Narayanganj, lawyers and family members of the victims yesterday held a protest rally in the court area demanding speedy extradition of Hossain.
INDIA ON NUR HOSSAIN
In an official communication, India yesterday informed Bangladesh about the arrest of Nur Hossain at an apartment in Kolkata on June 14.
Disclosing this, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the Indian government has sent a note verbale to Bangladesh seeking some information about Hossain.
“India has sought some information [about Nur Hossain] and we are trying to collect those,” he told reporters at his secretariat office.
On extradition of the arrestee, the state minister said efforts in this regard are underway.
However, a senior diplomat at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka yesterday told this newspaper that the matter has not yet been taken bilaterally as Bangladesh sought Interpol support to nab Hossain and the Interpol in Kolkata arrested the fugitive.
“This matter is still entirely very much within Interpol and the arrest and other communications being made is by Interpol,” he added.
According to the Interpol website, Hossain is wanted by the judicial authorities of Bangladesh for prosecution. It also shows six charges against him, including murder, hiding of crime evidence and abduction.
Sources at foreign ministry said although Bangladesh has not yet made any formal request to India for sending back Hossain, it promptly informed the Indian authorities that it would soon formally ask the neighbouring country to extradite the arrestee.