‘I held on to Abu Sayed’s truth’

Dr Rajibul Islam

Dr Rajibul Islam, the head of the forensic department at the Rangpur Medical College and Hospital, performed the autopsy on Abu Sayed in Rangpur on July 16, 2024. In an interview with New Age, he talked about how the state forces intervened in the forensic process and manipulated the post-mortem report during the last days of the Awami League regime.

New Age: When did you find out about the death of Abu Sayed on July 16, 2024? What happened that day?

Dr Rajibul Islam: I first saw the news on TV at about 2:00/2:30PM. I had left work by then. I always have to be up to date with regard to any casualty in Rangpur as I work in forensic. The Daily Jugantor has a section on the Rangpur division, which I check every night for news on any casualty. I must be aware of such news every day.

On July 16, 2024, I found out directly from the news that there was a shooting during a live broadcast. Then I talked to our principal on the phone. At about 4:00–5:00PM, I started to get calls from different high-ranking police officials. They said that a student named Abu Sayed had been shot during a live broadcast and there would be a post mortem. I was in Rangpur by 5:30PM from Saidpur, where I live. I had been waiting from 7:00PM, but finally received the body after 10:00PM.

What was surprising was that the inquest report was done in my morgue by an executive magistrate right in front of me. Some highly-ranked officers from the police kept calling me all that time. They told me that my focus should be on the head injury, and that I should see the injury on the left side of the head even though what happened was something else. I finished the post mortem by 12:00AM.

As you know, the morgues in Bangladesh have not been modernised. We do not have portable X-ray machines, electric tables, and not even enough light. There are so many issues. On top of that, I kept getting one call after another from the police, different agencies and our principal. A number of vehicles from different law enforcement agencies filled the morgue premises as I completed the autopsy by midnight. They had taken the body before I left at about 2:30AM. I think it were most probably RAB, the army and the executive magistrate who told me that they would transport the body using byroads as the situation in Rangpur was tense and bury it within the night.

New Age: What did you write in your primary post-mortem report?

Dr Rajibul Islam: I took help from one of our professors, who I will not name. The reason I sought his help at that time was that I had heard that he was a Jamaat supporter (Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami). He is a very famous professor in Rangpur, a mentor for us in forensic. I asked for his help with extreme secrecy. I asked him to guide me on writing the autopsy report properly. He helped me, but some Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad colleagues at our college somehow found out later that I went to him.

I wrote that report at least five or six times. Each time I mentioned that multiple pellets were lodged inside different parts of the body, which caused severe intra-abdominal and other internal haemorrhage. This internal haemorrhage was the cause of Abu Sayed’s death. It was an extra-judicial killing; it was murder.

In forensic terms, he was within a 10-metre range of the shotgun. If you fire a shotgun with a 30-metre range, it will not have much of an impact. If you shoot from a distance of 20 metres, the pellets will brush the skin. But they will pierce the skin and cause internal bleeding if fired within 10 metres. About the head injury — there was a small laceration on the left side of his head. There have to be fractures in the bone for it to be a head injury. There has to be intracranial haemorrhage, bleeding inside the skull. Only then can it cause a person to die. There was nothing like that in Sayed’s case.

You must have seen that Sayed clutched at his right side and sat down. There were multiple injuries on his right thigh. The femoral artery and nerves run through that area. There was haemorrhage there. There were multiple injuries in the stomach area. The mesenteric arteries, which supply blood to the abdomen, had ruptured. This caused internal bleeding. Shotgun, shotgun pellets and that it was a homicide were mentioned in the report, and that is why the police did not accept it.

I wrote the report a number of times. I worked on them until 3:00–4:00am each time and went to submit them the next day. The investigation officer would then call other officials, they would talk and then my report would not be accepted.

New Age: What happened then? 

Dr Rajibul Islam: You might remember that a judicial inquiry committee was supposed to come to Rangpur to investigate Sayed’s death. They had to return from the Saidpur Airport.

By the 30th, the report had to be written up four or five times. On July 30, they came to get the report. I was called to the vice-principal’s office. I was forced to write another report in the presence of high-ranking police officials that day. I remember clearly that the superintendent of police of the City Special Branch and other high ranking officials was present. The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence and National Security Intelligence officers were waiting outside.

They told me that they had filed an intelligence report against me, that they were watching me. They made me all sorts of offers. They told me to take a vacation in Thailand. There was a Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad leader present in the room. He told me that ‘madam’[the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina] was concerned about the matter as Sayed’s death had become sensational. He said, ‘You saw that she met Sayed’s parents, right? She shook their hands, handed them Tk 1,000,000. Now Sayed’s death will be made into a spectacle. Madam is concerned about it. We will take care of you, you just write the report the way you are told to.’

I then reminded my other faculty members how the doctor who wrote the autopsy report in the Yasmin rape and murder case (a 13-year old domestic worker, she gang raped and killed by three police men in 1995) got in trouble later. The police wanted me to focus on neurogenic shock caused by the head injury and not the gunshot wounds. They insisted that I mention the head injury as the primary injury. But I work in forensic, I have my own system of writing these things. Fortunately, I kept copies of all those reports that the police did not accept or told me to get rid of. The one that went viral was the one I had to submit on July 30 under pressure from the police. Even then it was not to their complete satisfaction. Although I could not include everything, I still marked the death as a homicide in that report. I did not waver from the truth. I mentioned that it was a homicide in each of the report that I had written.

New Age: You held on to the truth with such courage while mass killings were taking place all over the country at that time. Where did you find the courage and conviction? 

Dr Rajibul Islam: The state of the forensic department in Rangpur was appalling before. It has changed so much for the better in recent times. Nobody attacks doctors anymore, asking why they took bribes or submitted false reports. We have great communication with the police. They now get their reports on time; there are no middlemen any longer. This has been the case since I started here.

My courage comes from my honesty. I know that Sayed was shot at. It was broadcasted on live TV. The truth would have come out sooner or later. So I never wavered from the truth. I was also prepared to be pressured to alter my report; I knew that would be the case as long as the Awami League is in power. I was mentally prepared for that. 

I am glad that I kept the record of everything for times to come. After about two months, an investigation committee from the International Crimes Tribunal came to me. I had already told the media that I had to change the post mortem report 5/6 times. They referred to that and asked me what proof I had to back up my statement. They seized the two record books that I had written my reports in and checked them. They did find that the multiple versions of the report written there. A dead person leaves their body, their truth to a forensic doctor. I feel some sort of relief that I was able to hold on to Abu Sayed’s truth and deliver it to the ICT. 

New Age: How can we deter this kind of political interference in the process of preparing any forensic report in future? 

Dr Rajibul Islam: I can only speak from my experience. I have been working in the Rangpur forensic department for almost nine years, and I have been in charge for five years now. I have heard such derogatory remarks about the previous heads of forensic here. I, however, have instructed the doctors working with me to present nothing but the truth in all their reports and that I will take care of the rest. I get calls from all sorts of people, including ones with political clout, with regard to various reports. There is a lot of pressure all the time from different sides. But if you are honest, then nothing can get in the way. The problem starts when you are a yes-man, a boot-licker.

For example, I have no fears, and I always have my bags ready. As a government officer, I know that a transfer order can come down any time and I will have to move.

New Age: So your integrity is the source of your courage.

Dr Rajibul Islam: That is what I like to believe. Everyone here says that while people run after Dr Rajibul with money, he runs to Chuadanga for 50 Tk patient fees. The pregnant women there have their own appointment books. They get free ultrasounds; they get regular check-ups for 50/100 Tk. That is what makes me truly happy. So I do not have use for all that extra money. That is why I am still here in the forensic department in Rangpur after nine years.

My hope is that we will be able to uphold the values that Sayed gave his life for. There is too much divide, too much conflict and too much anger among us. We need to get rid of all that and work for the country together. That is all I would like to say.

Interview was taken by Saydia Gulrukh.