EC wants police to investigate murder of BNP nomination aspirant Abu

The Election Commission (EC) will give directives to the police to investigate the murder of Abu Bakar Abu, a BNP nomination aspirant from Jashore.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda said it while speaking to journalists following the inaugural ceremony of training of trainers at the Electoral Training Institute on Friday.

Abu’s body was found floating on the Buriganga River on Tuesday, as per a bdnews24.com report.

Abu, 58, a bachelor for life, had been elected chairman of Majidpur Union Council in Keshabpur Upazila of Jashore four times.

He collected the party nomination form after coming to Dhaka but went missing from a hotel in Paltan just before the day he was likely to face the interview.

His body was recovered from the Buriganga on Wednesday.

The BNP leader’s relatives said some people claiming to be his kidnappers had called them on phone and demanded a ransom. The relatives had paid Tk 170,000, but he had not been freed, they said.

The BNP has blamed the government over the murder saying the BNP leader in Jashore, Abu was ‘intentionally killed’ with the patronisation of the ruling party as he wanted to contest the election under the BNP.

“The police will file a criminal case and investigate the issue but we can’t do anything. We don’t know anything about it. They will check it. We have nothing more to say about it,” Huda said.

Abu was named on the list of five BNP nomination aspirants arrested by the police that the BNP handed to the EC.

“We’ll direct the police to follow the course of law and identify the criminals to take them to task; this will be our directive to the police,” said the CEC.