JL leader among three held over UNO attack
Rapid Action Battalion has detained three people, inducing a local Juba League activist, in charge of attacking Dinajpur’s Ghoraghat upazila nirbahi officer Wahida Khanam.
RAB-13 commanding officer Reza Ahmed Ferdous told New Age that they interrogated several people, but finally detained Asadul Haq, Nobirul Islam and Santu Chanda.
During interrogation, the three detainees confessed to their crimes, the RAB officer said.
Asadul is a member of Ghoraghat upazila unit Juba League unit while Nobirul and Santu work as house painters.
Meanwhile, central Juba League general secretary Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil said that they expelled two of its Ghoraghat upazila unit leaders — unit convener Jahangir Alam and member Asadul Haq — over the attack on the UNO.
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He said that they took action immediately after the allegation surfaced.
Reza said that Asadul was in the UNO’s house during the attack. RAB confirmed about Asadul’s presence in UNO’s house during the incident through digital forensics.
Police and RAB later detained Asadul from Bangla Hili area of Hakimpur in the district on 5.00am on Friday, said Hakimpur police officer-in-charge Ferdaus Wahid.
He was then taken to RAB-13 headquarters in Rangpur and, as per information extracted from him, Nobirul and Santu were detained later.
RAB officers said that Nobirul is a house painter and he had a good idea about the UNO’s official residence. They planned a burglary and entered by breaking open a ventilator, but following attacks on the UNO and his father, it was found that nothing was missing.
According to Reza, Wahida woke up when they assailants broke into the house and was puzzled to see strangers in her room. It was at this point that Nobirul struck her in the head with a hammer multiple times, leaving her critically injured.
As Wahid’s father rushed to save her, the assailants also hit him with hammers.
Dinajpur police, however, on Thursday ruled out any possibilities of burglary or robbery after the incident, saying that nothing valuable was missing from the UNO’s residence.
Dinjapur detective police detained a night guard named Polash for interrogation over the incident.
Jahangir Alam, Juba League convener of Ghoraghat unit, was detained on Friday morning by the RAB but was released in the afternoon following interrogation, reported our correspondent in Rangpur.
RAB officials said that Shingra union Juba league president Masud Rana was also detained for interrogation and he too was later released.
When approached, RAB-13 commanding officer Reza said that based on specific intelligence, they detained Jahangir for interrogation, but there were no evidence against him, so the investigators had to let him go.
The RAB officer also added that they were at the primary stage of their investigation and yet to have anything conclusive.
‘Some people are under our surveillance and we may interrogate more people when required,’ Reza added.
Dinajpur Juba League unit president Rashed Parvez told New Age that Jahangir, Asadul and Masud were involved in different criminal activities, including extortion and land grabbing.
‘District unit have been receiving complaints against these three — one a leader and the rest activists — for months. We don’t have authorities to expel or take action against them. We have requested the central committee for taking actions, but it was too late due to COVID-19 outbreak and other issues,’ said Parvez.
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that the law enforcement agencies were working to extract details of the incident and arrested all the people involved in the attack.
Wahida was critically injured in the attack by assailants at her home on the upazila parishad premises early Thursday.
Her father Omar Ali, a freedom fighter, was also injured in the attack.
They were taken to Rangpur Medical College and Hospital and then Wahida was airlifted to Dhaka and was admitted to the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital.
Physicians of the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital on Friday afternoon said that the condition of Wahida was now stable and she regained consciousness.
‘Wahida is now in the intensive care unit of the hospital after the surgery on Thursday night,’ said Badrul Alam, joint director of the hospital.
The hospital neurosurgery professor Zahid Hossain said that they carried out her operation on Thursday night and she regained consciousness on Friday morning.
There were nine fractures on her face and head and she suffered a brain haemorrhage as she was attacked with something heavy, the surgeon said, adding that the doctors would observe her for the next 72 hours.
Zahid said that Wahida’s right portion of the body was still paralysed and it might take long to cure.
Wahida’s brother Sheikh Farid Uddin, also a police inspector of Kahalu police station in Bogura, filed a case with Ghoraghat police station on Thursday night over the attack.
‘We are clueless about the motives behind the attack as my sister did not feel any animosity from anyone,’ he said.
He said that Wahida regained consciousness hours after the operation and talked to her husband, who is now in Dhaka after his arrival on Friday morning.
The Rangpur divisional commissioner has also formed a three-member probe committee, led by additional divisional commissioner Zakir Hossain, for investigating the incident.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
