Protests on for justice over Rifat murder

Several thousand people from all walks of life staged a peaceful demonstration in Barguna on Saturday demanding justice and immediate arrest of main suspects in the murder of Rifat Sharif.

Rifat was hacked to death in public in the district headquarters on June 26 in front of his wife Ayesha Siddiqua. The couple were married two months ago.

The protestors feared that the issue of killing might get politicised due to connections of the suspects with the ruling party, so they urged the government to make sure that justice was done.

The protestors brought out a procession that paraded through the main streets of the town. 

The police officials, meanwhile, claimed the motive of the killing was ‘personal’ but said they continued operations in search of the suspects named in the First Information Report lodged by Rifat’s father Abdul Halim Dulal Sharif.

The police and Rapid Action Battalion, meanwhile, arrested two more suspects in connection to the murder. Saimum was arrested in Patuakhali on Friday late night while RAB-8 arrested Rakibul Islam Rifat at Sonalipara in Barguna. Rakibul was one of the suspects named in the FIR.

With this, the police declared the arrests of five youths over the murder.

Earlier, Hasan and Chandan — both named in the FIR — and Nazmul Hasan, were arrested on June 26 and 27.

The police officials in Dhaka said they were desperate to capture the main suspects Sabbir Hossain Noyon and Rifat Farazi, two of the attackers who used sharp weapons to hack Rifat to his death.

Rifat, 22, was hacked to death in broad daylight in Barguna district town on June 26. The incident was caught on camera and went viral on social media triggering a huge outcry across the country.

On the following day, Rifat’s father Dulal Sharif filed an FIR with Barguna Police Station where he mentioned names of 12 suspects and said 5 to 7 unnamed suspects were also with the miscreants during the killing.

Barguna superintendent of police Maruf Hossain said they were working round the clock to hunt down the suspects.

National Human Rights Commission chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque, meanwhile, in a programme in Dhaka said the ongoing ‘culture of impunity’ and ‘lengthy legal processes’ were the reasons behind the rise in such crimes in the country.

Bangladesh Chhatra Federation’s Dhaka metropolitan unit on Saturday staged a demonstration in front of the national museum in the capital.

Chhatra Federation central president Golam Mustafa said that the incumbent government established a ‘rule of fear’ in the country.

Chhatra Federation Dhaka University chapter leader Abu Raihan Khan said Biswajit Das was also killed in front of Jagannath University in the same fashion on December 9, 2012. His killers were released on political grounds which showed how the country’s polity was controlled by a vested quarter, he added.     

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net