‘We will sleep in the car’

Two men found dead inside a car parked in the basement of a private hospital in Dhaka on Monday had earlier told the car owner that they would sleep in the vehicle.

The owner Zubair Al Mahmud Sourav said he and his driver Zakir Hossain, 40, travelled from Noakhali to Dhaka to see off his brother-in-law at the airport. Zakir's cousin Mizan tagged along as well.

"Mizan was supposed to pick up some relatives from Sirajul Islam hospital on Sunday [August 10], as they had booked the car," Zubair told The Daily Star.

"As I was leaving the hospital, Zakir told me that the patient would be released around 11:00am and he would sleep inside the car," he added.

Police on Monday found Zakir and Mizan dead inside the car.

"As there would be four people with the patient, including Mizan, I took a bus back to Noakhali. Around 5:30pm on Sunday, I called Zakir but he did not respond. Using the GPS tracker, I saw that the car was still in the hospital basement," Zubair told this newspaper.

"I attempted to contact him several times but he did not receive my calls. As I was tired from the journey, I went to bed early and the next morning tried to contact him again. I still saw the car in the hospital basement on the GPS tracker," the car owner said.

He later collected the phone numbers of Mizan…, but Mizan could not be reached either.

Dhaka Medical College morgue sources said viscera samples were collected from the decomposing bodies, and the report will determine the cause of death.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Ramna Zone Mir Asaduzzaman said the investigation is underway, while Ramna Division Deputy Commissioner Masud Alam added that CCTV footage and other evidence are being collected.

Meanwhile, Zakir's father, Md Abu Taher, said, "My son had no quarrel with anyone... I don't know who killed him."

He added that there had been some disputes with a broker over sending his son abroad.