Zakir was tortured to death

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) said Zakir had pains in the chest and hands while running to evade arrest at an open field at 3:00am on Tuesday. He succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital in the early of Wednesday.

But Zakir's father Zafar Hossain said some plainclothes law enforcers arrested him in presence of his mother Helena Begum in front of the Sony cinema hall at Mirpur immediately after Iftar on Monday.

The Rab men also arrested Zakir's friend Rubel from there at the same time, his father said.

Rab in the first information report, lodged with Shah Ali Police Station at Mirpur in the city by Captain Ahmed Yusuf Jamil, termed Zakir as a 'terrorist' although no case or general diary was found against him.

Zafar said the Rab men beat his son severely in its custody and then took him to hospital. "They even refused to say anything about his arrest when we inquired about my son in the Rab-4 office," he told The Daily Star.

"The plainclothes men even refused to say anything about his arrest when my wife wanted to know why they were taking her son," Zafar said quoting his wife.

"We then contacted the local police station and the Rab-4 office over phone both denied arrest of anyone by the name," said the weeping father.

Later, Zafar came to know that Rubel was handed over to Savar police on Wednesday.

Kafrul and Mirpur police said there is no case against Zakir in their police stations.