‘They did not even let me see my husband’s body’: JCD leader Tipu’s wife tells tribunal

The wife of slain BNP student leader Tipu Howlader broke down in tears while recounting how her husband was allegedly abducted by police and later killed in a staged “gunfight” in 2015.

Testifying before International Crimes Tribunal-2 on Tuesday, Suma Akter alleged that her husband, then joint general secretary of the Agailjhara upazila unit of Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal, was targeted amid political hostility involving then MP Abul Hasanat Abdullah.

“My husband was a master’s graduate. After two or three consecutive ‘crossfire’ incidents in Barishal, he was frightened and told me, ‘What will happen to you and the children if something happens to me?’ That fear is why I sent him to Dhaka. But I could not save him,” Suma told the tribunal.

According to her testimony, Tipu came under severe mental pressure following alleged political threats and went to stay at a relative’s home in Dhaka on February 17, 2015, seeking safety.

Two days later, on February 19, DB police allegedly picked him up from the residence.

After learning of his disappearance, Suma said she travelled with her mother-in-law and brother-in-law from their ancestral home, visiting police stations and influential local leaders in search of help.

Agailjhara police, meanwhile, denied arresting Tipu, she said.

Suma alleged that then upazila chairman Murtaza Khan and local Awami League leaders told them that only MP Abul Hasanat Abdullah could help.

She then travelled to Barishal and went to Abdullah’s residence but was not allowed inside.

“The guard did not let us enter. After trying repeatedly and failing, I returned home in tears,” she told the tribunal.

‘Killed in a staged gunfight’

After Tipu remained missing for two days, a television report on the afternoon of February 21 announced that he and JASAS leader Kabir Molla had been killed in a “gunfight” in Agailjhara.

Suma said she and other relatives immediately went to the police station after hearing the news, but the then officer-in-charge Monirul Islam and sub-inspector Nazrul Islam did not allow them to enter.

She further alleged that after the autopsy, police and local Awami League activists pressured the family to bury Tipu immediately.

“After receiving the body, police and local Awami League people began threatening us to bury him quickly. One of Tipu’s brothers and one of his sisters could not even see their brother’s face for the last time. We were forced to complete the burial hurriedly that evening,” she said.

Allegations of abuse of state power

According to the allegations before the tribunal, Abul Hasanat Abdullah, then an MP and a cousin of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, allegedly used state power after failing to politically counter Tipu Howlader and Kabir Molla.

The prosecution alleges that Abdullah and then-Barishal superintendent of police AKM Ehsanullah planned the killings and had the two political leaders taken to a bypass road on the Gournadi-Gopalganj highway, where they were allegedly shot dead.

The tribunal was later informed that Mahabul and Jasim, who were serving as police personnel at Uzirpur Police Station at the time, were allegedly directly involved in the killings.

Suma gave her testimony in the presence of the currently detained accused Mahabul and Jasim.

Her testimony created an emotional atmosphere in the courtroom as she recounted the loss of her husband and the family’s alleged ordeal in the aftermath.

More than a decade after Tipu’s death, Suma’s testimony renewed the family’s demand for justice in the case.