Former deputy attorney general Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed, who died in police custody on Friday, was laid to rest at his village home at Baliakandi of Sherpur in Bogra on Saturday night.
Gloom descended over the area as the ambulance carrying the coffin reached Baliakandi. A team of Supreme Court lawyers accompanied the coffin all the way from Dhaka.
Earlier in the afternoon, mourners, including lawyers, activists of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party bade him farewell after holding a second namaz-e-janaza in front of the BNP's central office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka.
Before the namaz-e-janaza, the acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a gathering that the government had killing MU Ahmed in a 'brutal manner' as it targeted 'nationalist lawyers' to foil the BNP's preparations for movement after Eid.
'We will avenge the killing of MU Ahmed by unseating this oppressor government,' vowed Fakhrul at the rally held as part of its countrywide demonstrations denouncing the death of MU Ahmed in 'police custody'.
Large contingents of police in riot gear and with water cannons were deployed around the BNP office.
Several thousand party activists marched through the main streets of the capital after the rally.
Earlier, lawyers loyal to the BNP went out on a demonstration on the Supreme Court premises at around 11:00am after they came to know that the police had taken away MU Ahmed's body from BIRDEM mortuary without informing his family or his lawyers.
The protesters chanted anti-government slogans and blocked the street in front of the Supreme Court. The lawyers led by Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum president, Rafiqul Islam Mia, also a member on BNP's standing committee, lay down on the street in protest against 'snatching away of the body.'
Rafiqul Islam Mia accused the government of snatching away the body to conceal the evidence of torture in custody. As the lawyers continued to stay on the street, a large contingent of police was deployed there.
At around noon, police in a wooden casket brought body to Supreme Court premises after post-mortem examination.
MU Ahmed's first namaz-e-janaza, held on the inner compound of Supreme Court building, was attended by chief justice Mozammel Hossain and some judges of the Appellate Division.
Senior leaders of BNP and its allies, a number of academics, BNP leaning intellectuals and cultural activists also attended the janaza.
The chairman of National Human Rights Commission, Miznur Rahman, also came to Supreme Court premises to see MU Ahmed's mortal remains.
After the janaza, the lawyers carried Ahmed's coffin to BNP's central office and stopped for a while in front of the chief justice's house and staged a brief sit-in seeking his intervention in the killing. 'We have come here to know whether the chief justice would try attorney general Mahbubey Alam, home minister Sahara Khatun, and Supreme Court judge AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury,' said lawyer and BNP joint secretary general AM Mahbubuddin Khokan.
'If he had been granted anticipatory bail, he
would not have died this way,' said Rafiqul Islam Mia.
The police said they had taken MU Ahmed's body from the mortuary to conduct a post-mortem examination as part of a legal procedure after his widow filed a complaint suspecting that his death might have been caused by physical and mental torture by the police.
'We had no other option but to conduct the post-mortem examination,' said Krishnapada Roy, deputy commissioner (Ramna zone) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. But he hung up the phone
after being asked why they had taken away the body without informing the
family.
Detective branch police on August 11 arrested MU Ahmed at his Segunbagicha house after being sued for attacking police and obstructing their duties during a hearing at the High Court on August 2.
He had fallen ill at the office of the detective branch police and was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Physicians at DMCH referred him to National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.
He was admitted to Square Hospital on August 16 in police custody where he died on Friday afternoon.
Source : New Age
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