Mancha activist Shahriar\\\'s death shrouded in mystery

Questions are being asked over the nature of death of Ganajagaran Mancha activist and SUST student Muhammad Shahriar Majumdar. After the recovery of the body, police had initially claimed it was a case of suicide. But relatives and friends refused to accept the police theory and demanded a thorough investigation to dig up the reason. Majumdar’s body was recovered on Thursday night from the house on Road 4 of the Surma Residential Area in Akhalia in Sylhet. From Chittagong’s Pahartali, Majumdar was in the final year of Bachelor’s in Architecture course at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet. He was associated with the Ganajagaran Mancha, a platform lobbying for capital punishment of war criminals, from its very inception. Majumdar had joined the protest rally in Sylhet city after the brutal murder of blogger and writer Avijit Roy. He had been getting threats since his participation in the rally, some of his friends said. They said a death threat was sent to him along with a kafan cloth (shroud). SUST unit Sudipta Das said even on Wednesday Majumdar had organised a programme on SUST campus.  “He was very cheerful on that day. He cannot commit suicide. His death is mysterious.” After the recovery of his body, SUST teacher Sahidul Islam Sumon in a Facebook status wrote: “Since February 2013, he had become eyesore of many Razakar-loving militants. Since then he had received several letters containing death threats and intimidations. “I was always concerned about his safety. I used to tell him not to move around alone,” Islam wrote.
Those who were staying with Majumdar at that house said he was alone at his room after they went out in the evening. But on their return at around 7pm, when he did not open the door despite several calls, they informed police. Police found him dead after breaking open the door around 9pm. His body was found hanging by a belt from a window grill. Sylhet City’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Rahmat Ullah said, “Prima facie, it looks like he had committed suicide. “However, to further investigate the incident a CID team visited the crime scene. We can ascertain the cause of death only after getting post-mortem report,” according to a news agency.
- biplab