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| Bangladesh |
| Move to let 11 accused outlaws off the hook |
| 2009-11-26 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Two recommendation letters have been sent to the home ministry by Sirajganj district administration to drop the names of 11 accused from the charge-sheet of the Randhunibari police outpost attack, police killing, arms and ammunition looting case. Names of the 11 accused were included in the charge sheet just to harass them politically, according to the recommendation letters. The charge sheet mentioned that the accused were the active members of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) and they were masterminds behind the attack, looting and killing incident. According to the complaint, around 50 to 60 members of outlawed PBCP equipped with firearms attacked Randhunibari police outpost on September 16 in 2002. The gang led by Nurul Islam opened fire on police personnel and killed four of them. They also looted arms and ammunition including seven SLR, two rifles and 174 bullets during the attack. After the incident, Police Subedar Abdul Hannan lodged a case with Belkuchi police station in this connection. Seven officers of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probed into the incident by rotation. On November 14 in 2008, CID Inspector Abdur Rashid submitted the charge-sheet to the court against 46 persons after completing his investigation. Of the charge-sheeted accused, 35 are now released on bail and 10 are absconding while one is in jail. The 11 persons who submitted applications to the authorities concerned to drop their names from the charge sheet are Habibur Rahman, Nurul Islam Talukder alias Montu, Selim Reza, Altaf Hossain, Arab Ali, Abed Fakir alias Joynal Abedin, Abdul Matin Fakir, Shafiqul Islam alias Rubat, Nuruzzaman, Abdur Rahim and Kamal Box. On May 18, the decision of sending recommendation letter to drop the names of 11 accused from the charge sheet was taken at a meeting at the conference room of deputy commissioner Sirajganj. Sirajganj Superintendent of Police Mosharaf Hossain, Additional District Magistrate Dipak Ranjan Adhikery and Public Prosecutor (PP) Abdur Rahman were present at the meeting. As per the decision, two separate recommendation letters were sent to the home ministry and other relevant departments on May 25 and June 14. CID police sources said accused Yusuf Ali, Abdur Razzaq, Anwar Hossain Sarker, Abdul Gafur, Saidul Islam, Serajul Islam and Altaf Hossain, who were earlier arrested from Belkuchi Char areas, in a written statement under section 164 before the magistrate court mentioned the involvement of other accused. In the statement, they also said that the 11 accused were not directly involved in attacking, killing and looting incident at Randhunibari temporary police outpost. Abdur Rashid, CID inspector and investigation officer (IO) of the case, said there is no question of implicating the names of 11 persons in the charge sheet to harass them politically. He further said that Nurul Islam, a prime accused of the case, formed a team in collusion with extremist leader Abdul Momin in the middle of 1999 and started collecting tolls from local loom owners and traders. Later, a temporary police outpost was set up at Randhunibari following complaints from local people. As local people stopped paying tolls to the outlaws after setting up of the police outpost, the gang became furious and attacked the police outpost. When contacted, Advocate Abdur Rahman, public prosecutor of Sirajganj district judge court, said two recommendation letters were sent to the higher authorities to drop names of 11 accused following the request of local Awami League (AL) leaders and high officials. But it is the matter of the higher authorities whether the proposal would be accepted or not, he added. Deputy Commissioner Md Humayun Kabeer and Superintendent of Police Mosharaf Hossain told The Daily Star that the recommendation letters were sent after analysing the rules and regulations and views of the committee concerned. However, local people said they now feel insecure after hearing the news that names of 11 accused might be dropped from the charge sheet. The persons will create problem again after returning to their locality, they feared. |
| Posted by:Fred |