Armed men have vandalised a 10-storey building under construction belonging to a trader, Mohammad Jasim Uddin, and set off crude bombs in Chattogram after a demand for 20 lakh taka in extortion money was not met. The incident took place at about 8am on Sunday in the residential area beside the Boro Dighirpar–Bhatiary link road in ward no 1, South Pahartali, of Chattogram City Corporation.
According to police and eyewitnesses, eight to 10 armed men wearing masks got out of a tempo in front of the trader Jasim Uddin’s house on Sunday morning. Workers were then at work on the 10-storey building under construction. The armed men entered the building and began beating the workers. They then smashed the building’s doors and windows. At one point they hacked a construction worker, Hasan Saki, with a machete, injuring him. Several workers and a security guard at the building were also beaten. As they left, the men set off three crude bombs.
Asked about it, the additional superintendent of police for Chattogram district (Hathazari circle), Kazi Md Tarek Aziz, said they had seen the attack on the house in CCTV camera footage. Efforts were under way to identify and arrest those responsible.
The trader targeted, Mohammad Jasim Uddin, has a wholesale rice and sugar business, with a wholesale shop in the Boro Dighirpar area of Hathazari police station. He recently began construction of the 10-storey building. Asked about it, Jasim Uddin said: “For a month extortionists have been calling from a foreign number and demanding 20 lakh taka from me. They went a little quiet after everyone protested following the attack on an internet company in the city. For the past week they have been calling again for extortion money. The matter was reported to police at once. I will file a case at the police station over Sunday’s incident.” Asked who had threatened him, he said he did not know their names.
Local people said it was not only Jasim’s building under construction: extortionists had telephoned and taken money from eight to 10 buildings under construction in the Boro Dighirpar area. Extortion of this kind had not occurred in their area since independence, they said.
On 13 July armed men attacked an internet service provider called DDN on Access Road in Chawkbazar in the city. A case was filed at the police station over the incident, and RAB and police later arrested 20 people in raids. CCTV footage of the incident showed a group of 15 to 20 armed men suddenly entering the DDN office. Men carrying locally made weapons smashed the office’s computers, the mobile phones of officials and staff, and various pieces of furniture. One was seen striking computers and other equipment with an axe. They also intimidated the officials and staff. The case says the extortion demand was made by Mobarak Hossain, also known as Imon. After the incident, however, an audio recording spread on Facebook in which a man identifying himself as Imon is heard telling someone at one end of a phone call that they do not attack businesses with knives and machetes, and that the whole of Chattogram knows what their manner of attack is like.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report