Shakib Al Hasan, the star cricketer for Bangladesh, is one of 156 persons charged with the murder of Muhammad Rubel in the Adabor neighborhood of Dhaka during the Anti-discrimination Student Movement rallies. Rubel, a textile worker by profession, was shot on August 5 of this year during the movement, and he passed away on August 7.

Along with Shakib and the then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, 154 local Awami League leaders and activists were accused of killing Rubel in the case that Rubel’s father, Rafiqul Islam, filed with the Adabor police station on August 22. A further 400–500 unidentified individuals were also charged in the case in addition to them.

Rubel reportedly joined the Student Movement against Discrimination’s nonviolent demonstrations in the Adabor Area on August 5th, calling for quota reforms in government employment. Unknown individuals opened fire on the students who were protesting, acting on directions from Hasina and the other accused. Rubel was wounded by two gunshots on his chest during this incident, resulting in severe injuries from which he finally succumbed.

Among the 156 defendants in the murder case is Shakib, who is presently representing Bangladesh in the ongoing Test series against Pakistan in Rawalpindi. According to the chargesheet, he is listed as culprit no. 28 in Rafiqul’s FIR. Since Sheikh Hasina and other Awami League party officials left Bangladesh, Shakib, who won the last general election while representing Magura-2 as an MP under the Awami League flag, has not returned to the country. Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate, is in charge of the temporary government that currently governs Bangladesh.

Faruque Ahmed, the recently elected president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, stated recently that if Shakib is unavailable for the domestic preparation camps like he was before the current Test series against Pakistan in their own backyard, then they will have to make a decision regarding his future.