A retired Bangladesh Supreme Court judge who was ‘nabbed’ by Border Guard Bangladesh troops while attempting to cross the international border in Sylhet on August 22 is suspected to have been “betrayed” by a Bangladeshi “facilitator” who in turn was lynched by a mob.
Intelligence sources revealed that the body of illegal border crossing facilitator, identified as Saddam, son of Rafiqul Islam, of Donachera village under Kanaighat police station of Sylhet district, was found opposite the Indian border outpost (BOP) of Dona in Tura, Meghalaya.
Saddam’s body, the sources said, was found about 400 metres from the international border near Border Pillar Number 1334. After piecing together the circumstances leading to Saddam’s death and the arrest of the judge, A H M Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik, officials of at least one Indian security agency concluded that a lynch mob may have killed the border crossing facilitator.
The sources said that Saddam, who was paid a large sum of money by Manik, tricked the judge into believing that he would take him safely across to Meghalaya.
“However, it now seems Saddam betrayed the judge to the BGB troops who then took the latter into custody. There is no concrete evidence so far to suggest that BGB troops of the 19th Battalion posted on the Bangladesh side of the border eliminated Saddam,” an Indian security agency official said.
Manik was reportedly carrying about Taka 40 lakh, a small part of which he gave to Saddam for the latter’s services. Following his arrest, Manik was handed over by the BGB to the Bangladesh police. Manik was badly beaten up when he was under police custody and protection, causing him grievous injuries to his private parts. He remains admitted in a hospital where is undergoing treatment.
A retired judge of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, Manik had grown a beard and disguised himself as a common man dressed in worn out and frayed clothing. Considered to be a man with a “particularly caustic acerbic tongue”, Manik, said to be close to the erstwhile Awami League leadership, had recently described a Bangladesh TV news presenter/anchor as “razakar” (collaborators with the Pakistani army before and during the 1971 liberation war), which drew public anger and criticism.
ALSO READ: Bangladesh’s dangerous swerve to the extreme right will have consequences
A day after Manik’s arrest, a former Bangladesh Chhatra League General Secretary Ishaq Ali Khan Panna died under unusual circumstances while climbing the Shillong hills in Meghalaya. While some reports indicated that he died of a cardiac arrest, Bangladeshi media stories said Panna may have been shot by Indian security forces. Panna was a resident of Bangladesh’s Pirojpur district.
Bangladeshi media reports claimed that the Awami League’s Relief and Social Welfare Secretary Aminul Islam Amin was in Panna’s company when the duo crossed over to Indian territory. Amin’s mobile and WhatsApp numbers were found to be inactive.
