Doctor Mizanur Rahman Tutu alias Tutul shot dead by Police at Naogaon

It was alleged that at around 4.15 am on July 27, 2008, Doctor Mizanur Rahman Tutu alias Tutul (49) was shot dead by the police at the Eidgah of Dighir Para of Kaligram of Raninagar Upazila, Naogaon. Odhikar’s fact-finding mission discovered that Tutu was the head of Rajshahi-Natore- Naogaon-Chapainawabganj region of Purbo Banglar Communist Party- M.L. [Red Flag]. According to Tutu’s mother, as per the report in the daily Jugantor, Tutu was arrested at around 10.00 pm on July 25, 2008, from Dhaka and taken to the RAB-1 office at Uttara in Dhaka. After hearing this news, in order to prevent Tutu from being killed in so-called ‘crossfire’, Tutu’s mother tried to place a written plea to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Jhenaidah district on July 26, 2008. In the event of the plea not being accepted by the DC, Tutu’s mother organised a press conference, where she urged the Government to ensure that her son would not be killed in the name of ‘crossfire’ and if there were any allegations against him, he should then be tried before the court under the operant laws of the country. On the other hand, it was stated from the district police of Naogaon district that on the night of July 27, 2008 they received information from a secret source that Tutu and his colleagues from his ‘extremist’ political organisation were holding a meeting at the Eidgah of Dighir Para of Kaligram, Raninagar. It was on the basis of that news that a team of police officers led by the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the Naogaon district went on a special mission to the area where they cracked down upon the ‘extremists’. During the ‘shootout’, Tutu was killed in ‘crossfire’.