Political rivalry over a candidacy for councillor in the coming city corporation election, rather than a business dispute or extortion, lay behind the shooting and killing at Mirpur 13 in the capital, the member secretary of the Kafrul thana unit of Jubo Dal in Dhaka metropolitan north, Hafizul Islam Babu, has said.
The Jubo Dal leader, who survived the attack, alleged that a joint convener of the Kafrul thana unit of the BNP had drawn up the plan to kill him, unable to accept his candidacy and his standing for the councillor’s post in ward 4 at the election.
He made the allegations at a news conference at the Bangladesh Crime Reporters’ Unity (CRAB) auditorium in the capital on Wednesday morning. At the news conference he showed reporters photographs of the attempt on his life, the attack, and the accused BNP leader with several suspected killers.
Hafizul Islam Babu said at the news conference that a group of assailants had fired indiscriminately at him with the intention of killing him at about 11:10pm on Friday 24 July in the Mirpur 13 area. A Kafrul thana Jubo Dal worker, Yusuf, was killed in the attack and two footpath traders were seriously injured.
Law enforcement agencies have already arrested eight people on suspicion of involvement in the incident.
Accusing the joint convener of the Kafrul thana unit of the BNP of being the main planner of the attack, he said: “The main mastermind, or the real killer, is him. I suspect he is the financier. But proving it is the responsibility of the state and the administration.”
He alleged that the garage of a local market had been rented out illegally to a man, and that it was used to run the killing mission. He claimed the president of that market, whom he named as the BNP leader, had knowingly given the man shelter without seeking the opinion of the other members.
The Jubo Dal leader rejected as entirely baseless and motivated the statement given by the Dhaka metropolitan detective branch (DB) immediately after the incident.
The DB had said the killing arose out of local dominance, a waste-collection tender, the dish and internet business and extortion on the footpaths.
Rejecting that account, Hafizul Islam Babu said: “There is no dish or internet business of mine or anyone else’s at Mirpur 13, and no syndicate of extortion on the footpaths. The city corporation has not even called any tender for waste in this area yet.”
Babu claimed that those behind the conspiracy were trying to divert the case in another direction in order to shield the main conspirator.
It was claimed at the news conference that professional killers had been hired from outside Dhaka for 25 lakh taka to carry out the killing mission.
It was alleged that the planner stayed in the background and had the whole mission run through another man. Several photographs of the accused BNP leader with two men described as hired killers and with the man said to have carried out the mission were then shown to reporters.
Hafizul Islam asked why police had still not arrested or questioned the BNP leader, even though there were photographs of him directly with those arrested and with the killers who are absconding.
Expressing deep fears for his own safety and that of his family, the Jubo Dal leader said: “The attempt to kill me was not made in a single day; it has been planned over a long period. Those who want to remove the leaders who were on the streets in the past movements and struggles, and to assert themselves anew, are the ones who have hired the killers to clear their own path.”
From the news conference Hafizul Islam strongly demanded that law enforcement agencies ensure an impartial investigation free of any political influence, and immediately arrest all the planners, including whoever gave the original order.
The allegations set out above were made at a news conference by a survivor of the attack, who is a political rival of the man he accuses. BD Global Times is not naming the accused BNP leader or the men described as hired killers: no case naming them over this incident has been established, and none of them has responded to the claims. The detective branch has given a different account of the motive.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report