Life-term convict Nasir arrested after 22 years in hiding
RAB-7 has arrested Md Nasir, a fugitive life-term convict in the Rozi Akter rape and murder case of Fatikchhari police station, after 22 years. He was arrested in a raid at Paschim Dhalai Noyahat in Hathazari upazila late on Monday night (9 November).
The arrested Nasir, 48, is the son of Amir Hossain of Shahanagar in Fatikchhari upazila.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Md Ashraful Islam, squad commander of RAB-7's Hathazari camp, said police recovered the body of Rozi Akter hanging from a mandar tree with an orna (scarf) beside her house in Fatikchhari on 16 May 2004.
An unnatural death case was filed at first. The post-mortem report later stated that Rozi had been raped and then murdered. On the complaint of her elder brother Abu Taher, a case was filed at Fatikchhari police station on 2 July 2004 under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
On the night before the incident, Rozi had gone outside the house to answer nature's call, when accused Abdul Mannan and Nasir forcibly took her to a shop and raped her.
On the way back, on the pretext of taking her home, they raped her again and strangled her to death. With the help of two associate accused, the body was then hung from the tree.
Acting on secret information about Nasir's whereabouts, the raid was carried out at Paschim Dhalai Noyahat in Hathazari upazila on Monday night. To evade law enforcement, Nasir had been living under the assumed identity of Md Azam. He had spent a long time in Oman since 2004.
Further legal proceedings are under way.
