Nine international labour organisations, including the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO), on Friday requested Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to have the murder of labour leader Aminul Islam reinvestigated. Aminul was abducted in Savar on April 4, 2012 and found dead on the roadside in Ghatail, Tangail, the following day. The post-mortem report said he was tortured to death. His family and co-workers arranged a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity yesterday where they alleged that Aminul’s true killers had not been identified. In a written statement, Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation President Babul Akhter and Executive Director Kalpona Akhter, claimed that former officials of the NSI, one of the country’s main intelligence agencies, were responsible for the murder. Kalpana said the NSI’s then additional director Aminul Islam, field officer Lutfur Rahman and assistant director Mamunur Rashid plotted the murder. Aminul’s body was found about 100km from where he was last seen on April 4, 2012. The CID, after a long investigation, submitted a charge sheet against the lone accused, Mustafizur Rahman, an employee in the Savar EPZ. The court accepted the charge sheet in January 2014. Kalpona said nine labour organisations had sent letters to the prime minister’s office on Friday. They are requesting the PM to have the case reinvestigated, she said. The US trades union federation, AFL-CIO, in its letter, said the Bangladeshi government had not demonstrated a commitment to justice for Aminul and called for the case to be reinvestigated. The slain leader’s widow, Husne Ara Fahima, said she was frustrated with the probe and trial process. She said she feared reprisals by the killers.
