The body of Sakib Anjum, a university student who was beaten and shot to death by Awami League activists during the student-led mass uprising on August 5, was exhumed on Wednesday 72 days after burial for a fresh autopsy.
Following a court order, a team of Detective Branch of the police exhumed the body from Tikapara Graveyard in the city at about 8:00am in the presence of Rajshahi district assistant commissioner and executive magistrate Auyon Farhan Shams.
Sakib鈥檚 father Mainul Haque, mother Rokeya Khatun, Student Movement Against Discrimination鈥檚 RU convener Salahuddin Ammar, and Sakib Anjum murder case investigation officer Moshiur Rahman, among others, were present at the scene.
Moshiur Rahman said that Sakib Anjum鈥檚 body was buried without an autopsy on August 5 due to non-availability of police and doctors that day.
鈥楩or the sake of a fair investigation, we requested the court to allow us to exhume Sakib鈥檚 body from the grave so that an autopsy can be performed,鈥� he said, adding that the body would be buried in the same grave following an autopsy at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
Earlier on August 5, over two hundred students including Sakib sustained bullet injuries after Awami League, Jubo League, and Chhatra League activists opened fire on the peaceful procession of the students in front of Shah Makhdum College in Rajshahi city.
Being hit by a bullet, Sakib took shelter in a small tin-shed house near the college where BCL activists also reached following the blood trail and beat him with sticks and iron pipes mercilessly.
Later, Sakib, a computer science and engineering department student of Varendra University, died there of excessive bleeding following a one-hour struggle without any treatment.
Following the incident, Sakib鈥檚 father Mainul Haque filed a murder case with the Boalia police station accusing 384 named and unnamed AL, JL, and BCL activists, including AL presidium member and former Rajshahi City Corporation mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton on August 23.
Later, the case was transferred to the DB police.