The police exhumed the bodies of two people who were killed during the protests led by the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement in Cumilla.

The bodies of Mr Rifat, 16, and Mr Babu Mia, 23, were exhumed yesterday (October 26) in Daudkandi district upazila as per the court order for investigation.

Among them, Rifat was in tenth grade while Babu was a mason.

According to police, Rifat was seriously injured after being shot in the chest during the August 4 student movement. He died that night and his family buried him without an autopsy.

On 18 August, a person named Abdur Razzak identified himself as Rifat’s uncle and filed a murder case at the Daudkandi model police station 14 days after Rifat’s death.

On September 1, Rifat’s mother Nipa Begum filed another case of murder in a Cumilla court, which is being investigated by the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).

Police said former member of parliament Engineer Abdus Sabur, former upazila chairman Major (retd) Mohammad Ali Sumon, former municipal mayor Naim Yusuf Sein and 400 others were accused in both cases.

Meanwhile, Babu was shot in the chest and died outside the Daudkandi model police station on August 5.

He too was buried without an autopsy. Later, Babu’s neighbor Liton Ahmed Pavel filed a murder case, naming 48 people and keeping 150 others unnamed.

Police said both bodies were exhumed following a court order as they did not have autopsies. Deputy Commissioner (Land) Redwan Islam of Daudkandi, investigating officer of the case and sub-inspector of Daudkandi model police station Harunur Rashid were present.

“The families of the deceased buried them as there was no way to do post-mortems at that time. The bodies were sent to the Cumilla Medical College mortuary. The bodies will be handed over to their families again after the post-mortems,” Harunur said. .

AC (Field) Redwan said further proceedings would follow the post-mortem reports.