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PROTEST OVER CASE DISMISSAL

AL calls hartal in Satkhira tomorrow

OUR CORRESPONDENT, Satkhira
Satkhira district Awami League (AL) has called for an eight-hour hartal on Saturday in the district protesting the dismissal of the case filed with Satkhira court against 27 leaders and activists of the ruling BNP for attacking AL chief Sheikh Hasina at Kalaroa on August 30, 2002.
The ruling party armed cadres attacked Hasina's motorcade and besieged her car for 10 minutes, throwing shoes and brickbats at it. They also fired shots and blasted bombs at noon, while she was going to Jessore via Kalaroa after visiting rape victim Mahfuza Khatun, 35 at Satkhira hospital.
Mahfuza, wife of freedom fighter Atiar Rahman of village Hijaldi in Kalaroa upazila, was forcibly taken to a bush in the village and allegedly gang-raped by ruling party cadres on August 26 night.
The attackers fired four shots in the air, put up road barricade and forced Hasina's car to stop in front of the residence of BNP lawmaker Habibul Islam Habib. However, police made safe passage for Hasina, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, within 10 minutes.
Twenty-four journalists accompanying her could not escape the wrath of the attackers and were assaulted and had their cameras snatched.
Witnesses said the attack was made by some 50 people led by the BNP lawmaker's elder brother and Kalaroa thana BNP President Rafiqul Islam.
As Kalaroa police declined to record the case, former Kalaroa thana AL Secretary Moslem Uddin filed a case with the cognizance court 'KA' Satkhira on September 2, 2002 against 27 persons with Habib MP as the main accused.
The court ordered Officer-in-Charge of Kalaroa Police Station Golam Kibria to investigate the case and submit a report. Kibria, the investigating officer (IO), took the statements of Monsur Ahmed, BM Nazrul Islam, Abu Ahmed and Engineer Sheikh Mujibur Rahman out of 18 witnesses. The IO did not notify the other witnesses, the AL
leaders alleged.
Meanwhile, having been pressed by Habib MP and local BNP leaders, the IO submitted his final report saying the case was false and baseless. The lawyers said that they wanted to go through the case docket including the IO's report earlier but the court authorities said that the file was missing.
Over one hundred lawyers appeared Magistrate Court yesterday and prayed for time so that they could go through the documents but the court rejected their plea.
However, in the next session Magistrate MI Siddique declared the case dismissed. On hearing the verdict, several hundred leaders and activists of AL and its front organisations held a protest meeting on the court premises and announced an eight-hour hartal on Saturday in the district. Monsur Ahmed, Sheikh Abu Nasim Moina, Nazrul Islam, Farida Akhtar Banu, Abu Bakar Siddique, Azharul Islam, SM Haidar and Firoz Ahmed, among others, addressed the gathering.