Photo: Collected
Seven years of the murder of Buet student Abrar Fahad were completed today, Wednesday (7 October). The trial court had sentenced 20 accused to death and five to life imprisonment, and the High Court later upheld those sentences too. However, the final judicial process has not yet ended. This much-talked-about brutal murder case is now awaiting disposal of the accused’s petitions in the Appellate Division.
Abrar’s family, who have been waiting for seven years, say that although one verdict after another has come from the courts, their wait is not ending. In particular, they are now frustrated over the progress in executing the verdict.
Abrar’s younger brother Abrar Faiyaz said his brother’s murder shook not only one family but also the country’s political reality. He claimed the anger that grew among people after Abrar’s murder had an influence on the subsequent political change.
Speaking over mobile phone, he said the departure of fascism began with the murder of Abrar Fahad. Yet the trial of that very murder, of those because of whom change has come today, has still not ended.
Faiyaz said they are still waiting even after the High Court verdict in March 2025. When they contact various places, they are told that cases proceed according to the serial.
In his words, the serial can be brought forward. But they hesitate even to have the serial brought forward. The family has made contact wherever it was necessary. Now they have nothing left to do but wait.
Faiyaz asked where the obstacle to executing the verdict lies, saying his family does not know. It now seems that this is nothing but negligence.
Sultan Mahmud Talha, member secretary of the Kushtia district committee of the National Citizen Party (NCP), said the anti-fascist movement began with the murder of Abrar Fahad. That fascism has been removed, and the new government is reaping benefits standing on Fahad’s murder. They should execute the verdict against the accused in the Abrar Fahad murder. This demand is not his alone but that of every person in the country; let the verdict be executed quickly.
Abrar’s father Md Barkat Ullah has the same anger. Speaking over mobile phone, he said the importance of the Abrar murder case diminishes as soon as the government changes. Executing the verdict against the accused is not only what his family wants, it is what the people of all of Bangladesh want. Still the verdict is not being executed. Not only he but everyone in the country is frustrated at this.
He said they have not yet received fair justice. His appeal to the government is that the work of the trial be completed quickly.
He further said they never thought their son would be killed so brutally after going to study at the country’s best seat of learning.
On 5 October 2019, Abrar made a Facebook post about unfair agreements with India on various issues, including water sharing. The following night, he was called to a room in Buet’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall, interrogated and beaten. He died at one stage of the torture in the early hours following 6 October. The body was recovered from the stairs of the hall the next day.
Abrar was a student of Buet’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. A strong reaction emerged across the country after this murder. Questions were raised anew about student politics, torture in residential halls and the influence of the ruling party’s student organisation at various educational institutions, including Buet.
Abrar’s father filed a murder case with Chawkbazar Police Station as the plaintiff. After the investigation, police submitted a charge sheet to the court on 13 November 2019 accusing 25 Buet students.
After a trial lasting more than two years, a Dhaka court on 8 December 2021 sentenced 20 people to death and five to life imprisonment.
After that, the High Court held hearings on the death references of those sentenced to death and the appeals of the accused. On 16 March 2025, the High Court also upheld the death sentences of the 20 and the life terms of the five.
However, the case did not end here. Several accused have filed petitions with the Appellate Division against the High Court verdict. As a result, the wait remains for the final judicial process to end before the death sentences are executed.
Abrar’s family say the biggest question for them now is not about the pronouncement of the sentences, but about where the trial process ends.
At Abrar’s home on PTI Road in Kushtia town, the memory of that night seven years ago is still fresh. Having passed every stage from the trial court to the High Court, the case is now in the country’s highest court. On a visit to the PTI Road house yesterday, it was learnt that Abrar’s parents are in Dhaka with his younger brother.
The verdict has been delivered and the sentences have been upheld too. But even after seven years, the hours of waiting have not ended for Abrar’s family.
