At least six to seven people can be seen in the video footage of the incident, where a man in Barguna was attacked by at least two men with sharp weapons in broad daylight in front of the victim’s wife.
At the first glance, it appeared the men — standing at a distance the whole time and not intervening — as bystanders. But it has now emerged that they were cohorts of the assailants.
In the video of the incident, possibly captured on a surveillance camera, assailants were seen striking 25-year-old Rifat Sharif indiscriminately while his wife Ayesha Akhter Minni was desperately trying to save him.
“The killed my husband right in front of me. I tried a lot to save him, but I failed. Not a single person came forward to help us when the attack took place,” a tearful Minni told journalists in Barguna on Thursday.
Recounting the horrific incident, the widow said that the people standing at a distance the whole time were accomplices of the perpetrators.
According to her, prime suspect Sabbir Hossain Nayan alias Nayan Bond and siblings, Rifat Farazi and Rishan Farazi took part in the attack involving sharp weapons.
A case has been started by the victim’s father against 12 people on Thursday, when police arrested a suspect, identified as ‘Chandan’ over the incident in front of the main entrance of the Barguna Government College.
Shafiqul Islam, deputy inspector general (DIG) of police (Barishal Division), visited the spot on Thursday.
Speaking to the media, DIG Shafiqul said all those involved in the brutal murder will be nabbed and brought to the book.
The video of the incident showed six people standing at a distance when assailants were hacking Rifat. At one point, three of them took a few stops forward only to turn around while a seventh person was seen crossing the scene.
Moments later, another man was seen coming forward and standing at a distance. The approach and the body language of these men suggest that they were at the scene in an effort to facilitate the escape of the assailants.
The victim’s wife, Minni was seen screaming as she desperately tries to stave off the men attacking her husband with sharp weapons. She tries to hold back one of the attackers, while the other continues to strike Rifat
At one point, Rifat breaks free of his attackers. While his wife Minni clings onto an attacker, her husband fights the other one off with what appears to be a red shopping bag. It is too little and too late. By then his white shirt has turned into a bloody rag.
During the whole time, at least six people were seen standing at a distance and not intervening. However, one man's gestures appeared that he was trying to save Rifat. But he was also seen backing off after being struck by one of the men with sharp weapon.
At one point of the struggle, Minni drops her purse and forcefully pushes back one of the attackers. The two attackers then throw one last chop at Rifat before fleeing the scene, when a man donning, what seemed to be a jersey of Bangladesh national cricket team, was seen gesturing which appeared that he was telling the people to clear the scene.
According to witnesses and local sources, Rifat was being manhandled and assaulted before two men with sharp weapons appeared at the scene.
According to Rifat’s wife Minni, prime suspect Nayan used to stalk and harass her often, asking her to get involved in a relationship with him.
“Even after my marriage, he continued to stalk me at different places, and threatened me not to inform about these to my family,” she alleged while speaking to the media in Barguna.