The four children, killed in a Habiganj village on February 12, were
first made unconscious and then strangled before being buried in a sand
extraction area.
And a power struggle between two groups of the local panchayat
(village arbitration) led to the brutal murders in Sundrateki village of
Bahubal upazila, said Joydev Kumar Bhadra, superintendent of Habiganj
police.
"Rubel and Arju, who have been arrested [in connection with the
incident], confessed it before a [judicial magistrate's] court around
7:00pm today," he said at a press briefing yesterday evening.
"Five more people were involved in the killing mission," said the SP.
They are Rubel Miah, 17, Arju Miah, 20, Shahed, 22, Ustar, 23, and
Helal.
"They killed the children on orders from Abdul Ali."
It was Ali and a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver named Bachchu who planned the killing, he added.
Bodies of the children -- Monir Miah, 7, Zakaria Shuvo, 8, Mohammad
Tajel Mia, 10, and Ismail Miah, 10 -- were recovered from underneath
sand on Wednesday, five days after they had gone missing from a
playground in their village.
According to the district police chief, Abdul Ali leads one of the
two rival groups that have long been at loggerheads over establishing
supremacy in the area.
Khaleque Master, a retired schoolteacher, heads the other group. All the victims belonged to families loyal to him.
Bachchu used to be a supporter of Khaleque until he was expelled from the panchayat following a row with the leader.
To exact revenge, Bachchu then joined hands with Abdul Ali and they
together worked out a plan to "teach Khaleque Master a lesson".
They decided to kill either Abdul Aziz, who is considered Khaleque's
right-hand man, or his son Tajel Mia, Habiganj SP Joydev added.
On February 12, Tajel along with the three other victims went to the
playground to watch a football match, which was later abandoned due to
rain.
As they were returning home in the afternoon, Bachchu tricked them into his auto-rickshaw.
Rubel, Arju and some others soon joined Bachchu. They made the
children unconscious using anaesthetic drugs and strangled them inside
the three-wheeler.
They kept the bodies at Bachchu's garage for the night and buried them in a sand extraction area on Saturday night.
After conducting autopsies, Debashish Das, resident medical officer
of Habiganj Sadar Hospital, said, "Marks of torture were found in
different parts of the bodies, but no sharp weapon was used."
As of Thursday night, five people -- including Rubel, Arju, Abdul Ali
and his son -- were arrested in connection with the incident, according
to the Habiganj SP.
Rubel and Arju have already been placed on 10-day remands.
'SPECIAL COURT TO TRY KILLERS'
Meher Afroz Chumki, state minister for women and children
affairs, visited the victim families at Sundrateki yesterday afternoon.
After talking to spending some time with the bereaved family members,
she told journalists that the case would be tried at a special
tribunal.
Police were hunting for the culprits who had gone into hiding
following the "heinous" murders, she said. "No one will be spared."
The state minister also said Tk 50,000 would be given to each of the victim families from the prime minister's special fund.
Local lawmakers Amatul Kibria Keya Chowdhury and Munim Chowdhury
Babu, Habiganj Deputy Commissioner Sabina Alam ad SP Joydev Kumar Bhadra
accompanied Chumki at the time.
FAMILIES STILL IN SHOCK
Visiting Sundrateki village yesterday, this correspondent found the mothers of the victims crying inconsolably.
Relatives and neighbours were trying to comfort them in vain.
Torn apart by the gross display of cruelty, some of the family
members had even forgot to change their clothes or take daily meals.
As a result, some fell sick and a medical camp has been set up in the
village by the Bahubal Health complex authorities to treat them. The
four mothers were given intravenous saline on Thursday night.
LOCALS PROTEST
A few hundred locals yesterday formed a human chain at the spot where the kids were murdered.
They demanded that the culprits be immediately arrested and hanged.
