Rokeya Khatun, mother of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) student Abrar Fahad, has expressed satisfaction over the High Court order upholding the lower court verdict in her son Abrar Fahad murder case.
"We are all satisfied that the previous verdict has been upheld. I express my gratitude to everyone. Even after six long years, the people of this country always stood beside us. For this, I express my gratitude to everyone. What we want now is for this verdict to be implemented quickly. If this verdict is implemented, no one will dare to commit such crime in future," she told BSS at her residence following the HC verdict.
Rokeya Khatun expressed sympathy to the parents of the convicted students, saying “I know, like me, parents of the convicts are also saddened after hearing the HC verdict. No parents certainly sent their children to campus to be terrorists, but for pursuing education. But, the circumstances pushed them to come to this situation. And, for this we have nothing to do,” she said.
Mother of Abrar said there is no ragging now in the educational institutions after ousting of the fascist. Students were not allowed to speak freely at that time. After mass upsurge in 2024, people can freely talk,” she noted.
The High Court (HC) today upheld a lower court judgment convicting and sentencing 20 people to death and five more to life imprisonment in a case lodged over the brutal killing of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) student Abrar Fahad.
A High Court division bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain passed the verdict after hearing the convicts' death references and jail appeals.
The High Court on 24 February 2025, kept the judgment on CAV (court awaits verdict) as the legal arguments came to an end in the case on that day.
Abrar was brutally beaten to death on 7 October 2019, by some leaders of the then BUET unit Chhatra League over his posts on Facebook.
Abrar's father filed the case with Chawkbazar thana against 19 students of BUET. Police later included the names of six others in the list of the accused after the investigation.
Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 on 8 December 2021, convicted and sentenced 20 people to death and five more to life imprisonment in the case.
