The seven murders in Narayanganj were carried out on the directive of a top Rab official, according to sources quoting ex-Rab official Masud Rana's testimony before a court yesterday.
Maj (retd) Arif Hossain, accused of murder, had made the same claim during his confessional statement recorded on Wednesday, sources said.
Rana, who testified before the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate KM Mahiuddin, said he and former Rab official Maj (retd) Arif Hossain were in the Rab-11 team that kidnapped the seven from the Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road.
Murder accused Rima said the victims were strangled with polythene sheets/bags inside the car and that they were sedated immediately after they were put inside the vehicle.
Lt Commander (retd) Masud Rana was sent into forced retirement from Bangladesh Navy following the abduction and killing.
Sources yesterday said in the testimony Rima reinforced Maj (retd) Arifs claim that the Rab officials involved in the kidnapping and murder on April 27 followed the commands of a Rab high official.
On the day, Narayanganj city panel mayor Nazrul Islam, his three associates and his driver, senior lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were abducted allegedly by some members of Rab-11.
Their bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya river a couple of days later.
Sources said Rana provided a harrowing and meticulous account of the kidnapping, murder and dumping of the bodies, carried out by at least 23 Rab personnel. They said Masud Rana testified that after they had abducted the seven, the car headed towards Narsingdi. At one point, one of the Rab personnel called Nur Hossain over the phone from the car and asked him to clear his sandtrading post near Kanchpur Bridge as the bodies would be taken there.
Immediately after the abduction, they also contacted murder accused Lt Col (retd) Tareque Sayeed Mohammad, then commanding officer of Rab-11. They kept in touch with Tareque until he joined them near Kanchpur Bridge.
They reached the bridge area around 11:00pm on April 27. From there, the bodies were put in a trawler
and dumped in the Shitalakkhya river.
The sources, who wished to remain anonymous on grounds of professional and personal safety, said apart from a few minor details, the confessions made by the two former Rab officials were almost identical.
Like Maj (retd) Arif, Rana also said he had received directives from a topranked Rab official during the abduction and killing mission. "Those who work in disciplined forces such as Rab and army are obliged to follow the orders of their superiors," a source quoted Rana as saying in the statement.
Despite the confessions of the former Rab officials, none of the progress reports on the investigations,
submitted to the High Court by four agencies probing the case, mentions Rab personnel's involvement.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, at a press briefing at his office on Wednesday, said, "I have read out before the High Court the important portions of four progress reports of the investigations, but I have found no mention of any Rab personnel's involvement in the incident."
On Wednesday, he submitted before the HC the reports prepared by the inspector general of police, the director general of Rab, the Criminal Investigation Department of police and the seven-member committee headed by an additional secretary of the public administration ministry.
Rana was taken to court around 8:00am yesterday. He took three hours to decide whether to confess.
Around 11:00am, he was taken to the room of Senior Judicial Magistrate KM Mahiuddin where he spent the next three hours testifying. He was sent back to jail after the recording of his statement.
His five-day remand for questioning expires today.
Rana, Arif and Tareque were sent into forced retirement from their respective forces on May 6 in connection with their involvement in the gruesome abduction and killing. They were accused in the murder case on May 25 and arrested a week later at Dhaka Cantonment.