File photo of Abrar Fahad, who was found dead on a staircase of Buet’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall in the early hours of October 7, 2019 Collected

Beaten for nearly four hours, Abrar collapsed on the ground and was lying in a critical state

Buet student Abrar Fahad had been tortured for four hours before he died from internal injuries in the early hours of Monday, a telephone conversation between a leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s Central Committee and a leader of its unit at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) has revealed.

According to the audio clip, the beating started around 8:30pm on Sunday and continued until 12:30am on Monday.

Among those who took part in beating Abrar up, the just expelled information and research affairs secretary of Chhatra League’s Buet unit, Anick Sarker, was most aggressive, the unit’s Assistant Secretary Ashiqul Islam Bitu told Chhatra League Central Committee’s Literature Secretary Asif Talukder during the phone call.

When Asif asked Bitu who started the beating and when, the latter was heard saying: “It was already 8:30pm [on Sunday] when Monir and Tanveer came to the room [Room 2011 of Sher-e-Bangla Hall where the attack took place].

“They [Monir and Tanveer] asked who had posted the Facebook status [Abrar’s post on Bangladesh allowing India to collect water from a river in Feni]. They also asked if Abrar was really linked to Shibir,” Bitu said.

CCTV camera shows Abrar Fahad being carried out by unidentified men in hall |Collected“Afterwards, Jammy and Tanim brought Abrar and two or three other second-year students into Room 2011,” Bitu said, claiming that he was at the scene because he usually takes part in group study in the room.

Beaten for nearly four hours, Abrar collapsed on the ground and was lying in a critical state when Bitu entered the room.

“Monir, Sakal and Tanveer were looking worried. I came out of the room and asked Sakal what had happened. Monir replied saying Abrar had been given a good beating,” he added.

Anick, who was expelled from his Chhatra League post later on Monday, was in a drunken state and beat Abrar the most, Bitu told Asif.

Asif Talukder is among the two members of a probe body that the ruling party’s student wing formed on Monday to investigate the brutal murder of Abrar Fahad, a second-year student of Buet’s electrical and electronic engineering department.

The accused beat him up for his alleged involvement with Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami – an unsubstantiated claim which has yet to be proven.

His family members ruled out the allegation, saying Abrar had been liberal and progressive.

Abrar, in his last Facebook post on Saturday, expressed his critical views concerning Bangladesh's agreement with India which will allow the neighbouring country to withdraw water from a river in Feni.

In the status, he mentioned three past instances in which Bangladesh failed to attain some achievements in use of port, water sharing and export of energy resources from its neighbour.

Earlier, in a separate post published on September 30, Abrar portrayed his critical views regarding Bangladesh's decision of exporting ilish to India's West Bengal.

Room 2011

The second last room located on the first floor of the five-storey Sher-e-Bangla Hall in Buet, Room 2011 is used as a torture cell and a party hub, students have alleged.

The room’s four occupants are Chhatra League Buet unit Deputy Law Secretary Amit Shaha, Deputy Office Secretary and third-year chemical engineering student Mujtaba Rafid, Deputy Social Welfare Secretary and biomedical engineering student Iftee Mosharraf Sakal, and another student named Prattay Mubin.

Photographs obtained by Dhaka Tribune shows empty bottles of liquor littered around the room, indicating that drinking alcohol was a common activity there.

Also, a Chinese machete and at least five cricket stumps were found in the room, indicating what kind of weapons might have been used to beat Abrar up.

Abrar’s autopsy, conducted at Dhaka Medical College morgue, confirms that he was beaten with blunt objects, like cricket stumps, and died because of the injuries from that beating.