Raihan assassination: IF Akbar is in pre-trial detention for seven days

A Dhaka court granted a seven-day pre-trial detention to the dismissed Deputy Inspector (SI) Akbar Hossain Bhuiyan in connection with the murder of 32-year-old Raihan Uddin Ahmed at the Bandar Bazar police post in Sylhet.

The investigating officer on the case, Police Investigation Bureau (PBI) inspector Awlad Hossain, said SI Akbar was taken to the Metropolitan Magistrates Court in Sylhet on Tuesday afternoon. He was in preventive detention for seven days for questioning. The court granted a seven-day preventive detention.

Witnesses said that when Akbar was brought to court, hundreds of people chanted “I want to be hanged”, “I want to be hanged”. The police were deployed to secure the court premises at that time.

District police handed Akbar over to PBI around 8pm on Monday after he was arrested in the Kanaighat border area in Sylhet. Akbar was interrogated at night. In early October 11, Raihan Ahmed died at the Bandar Bazar police post. Two days later, Akbar fled.

Raihan Uddin Ahmed, 33, the son of the late Rafiqul Islam of Neharipara in the Akhalia area of ​​Sylhet city, was tortured to death at the Bandar Bazar police outpost on the night of October 10, according to a police investigation. The next day, on the morning of October 11, the family found her body. Later that night, Raihan’s wife became the plaintiff and filed a murder case charging unknown persons. The case is being investigated by the Police Investigation Office (PBI). Relatives allege that Raihan was beaten to death while in police custody for not receiving Rs 10,000.

Following the incident, SI Akbar Hossain Bhuiyan, SI Titu Chandra Das, Constable Harunur Rashid and Touhid Mia, officers in charge of the Bandar Bazar police post, were suspended on 12 October. Additionally, Deputy Assistant Inspector (ASI) Ashek Elahi, ASI Qutb Ali and Agent Sajib Hossain were also removed. Subsequently, on October 21, SI Hasan was suspended for allegedly destroying evidence in the case.

Akbar was under police surveillance until October 12. Since then, the police have not found him. Sylhet District Police Superintendent Farid Uddin told the media that warnings were issued at all police stations bordering Sylhet District so that he could not flee to India.

Meanwhile, Akbar claimed that after receiving the advice of a senior official, he fled to India across the Bholaganj border in Sylhet and the Majhergaon area in Meghalaya. It first settled in Silchar, Assam via Shillong. On Monday afternoon, on their way to Bangladesh across the Dona border at Kanaighat upazila, they were detained by the Indian Khasias due to a closure in the border area. They then handed him over to Khasias from Bangladesh.