Reaz Rahman shot at in Gulshan: BNP calls hartal for Thursday

Unidentified miscreants shot at Reaz Rahman, an adviser to Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, and set fire to his car in the capital’s Gulshan area on Tuesday evening, prompting the BNP to call a 24-hour hartal from Thursday morning. Khaleda Zia immediately condemned the attack on the former diplomat, carried out near a police checkpoint. ‘The attack followed provocative remarks from the government high ups.’ she alleged. Reaz, the 75-year-old former state minister for foreign affairs, was hit by four bullets in the left leg and back on an alleyway near Westin Hotel in Gulshan-2 intersection at about 8:30pm on his way back from the Gulshan office of Khaleda Zia, who has been in confinement since January 3. Reaz was rushed to nearby United Hospital where he underwent surgery, the hospital and his party officials said. He bled profusely and was not out of danger, BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan told the media talking to the doctors. Orthopaedic surgeon Aminul Islam was looking after him, the party officials said.

No formal statement was available from the hospital till 12:15am today on his health but officials seeking anonymity said Reaz was shifted to high dependency unit and the bullets were yet to be removed. Witnesses said some eight youths on motorbikes stopped his car on Road 46 and started smashing the windowpanes with hammers and sticks. At the same time, they shot at Reaz but his driver escaped unhurt. Reaz got out of his car and crawled his way to nearby Sheba House, a commercial building. The miscreants also set the car alight sprinkling it with inflammable substance before fleeing the scene by exploding crude bombs. ‘The police took him to a hospital,’ said a witness. Gulshan police sub-inspector Mahbub Alam, who rushed to the spot from a nearby place where he was on duty, told New Age that Reaz was hit by bullets. An empty bottle was seen at the spot after a police wrecker pulled away the damaged car. None of the senior Dhaka Metropolitan Police officials stationed in Gulshan area was available for comments on the attack which took place in an area heavily guarded by the police and under CCTV surveillance.

Gulshan police sub-inspector Mohammadullah Faisal said after midnight that none was arrested and no case was filed in this connection. Earlier in the evening, Reaz visited Khaleda at her Gulshan office where she has been kept in confinement for the last 11 days. In her statement, Khaleda termed the attack on Reaz Rahman a ‘cowardly act’. ‘I am really anxious…,’ she stated. Khaleda also sounded a warning that such attacks on the opposition would not protect the government in the end. The BNP called a 24-hour countrywide hartal from 6:00am Thursday in protest at the attack on the senior BNP leader. The media report said gunshots were fired in front of the houses and offices of senior BNP leaders in last few days during the continued blockade. Reaz, who served in different Bangladesh missions abroad, had been the foreign secretary from September 1991 to December 1993, the ministry website stated. He served as state minister for foreign affairs and adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs between October 2001 and October 2006.

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