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Protesters torch 16 AL men’s houses

Underground outfit claims responsibility for Gama killing, hartal in Natore today

Roving Correspondent, Natore
Arsonists with ties to the ruling BNP burnt down at least 16 houses of Awami League adherents in police presence Saturday night in the outrage at the killing of a deputy minister’s nephew in Natore, for which an underground outfit claimed responsibility.
BNP’s youth front Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal and a local vigilante group, Lathi Bashi Shilpa Banik Samity, jointly called a dawn-lo-dusk hartal in Natore for today protesting Saturday’s killing of Sabbir Ahmed Gama in an armed attack at Kamarpara in Naldanga in the northwest district.
A gang of30 burst into Shahpara
village at about 10:30pm and set fire to the houses mostly with thatch or tin roofing after spreading gunpow-der.
No-one was hurt in the two-hour arson, as families fled the village in fear of their life in the wake of the afternoon killing.
The artackers looted Tk 1 lakh in gold ornaments and other valuables from the house of Wajed Ali Shah, a BNP worker, in the same village during the rampage.
Witnesses said the arsonists came by motorbike soon after a police team hemmed in the village in search of the killers, an allegation of police aid that Natore Superintendent of Police (SP) Syed Nazrul Islam brushed aside.
The attackers resisted neighbouring villagers who came forward to douse the fire and Natore Fire Service vehicles during the arson that killed cattle and pet animals.
On the apparent retaliatory attack on Shahpara village, Deputy Minister for Land RuhulKuddusTalukderDulu, who lost his nephew on Saturday afternoon, said he was in the dark about the arson attack and claimed no BNPworkers had roles in it.
'We will take action against them if anyone of our party was found guilty," promised Ruhul Kuddus, elected lawmakerfrom a Natore constituency.
Those who lost houses in the fire are Naldanga upazila AL Vice-President Anisur Rahman, General Secretary SM Feroz, former union parishad member Zaherul Islam Shah and AL workers Ahad Ali Shah, Asad Ali Pramanik, RafiqueAli Shah, Abbas Ali Shah, Shahin Shah, Momin Shah, Fayez Shah, Jabbar Shah, Faruk Shah, Futu, Forhad, Fazlu and Formajul.
OUTLAW CLAIM
A couple of hours into the killing, an unnamed person called three local newspersons and a newspaper office in Rajshahi, the neighbouring district of Natore, and claimed responsibility for the killing, identifying himself as a leader of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist-Lal Potaka).
"We have killed Gama," one of the
journalists quoted the caller as saying.
The deputy minister described the killing as a handiwork of the main opposition AL and said: "I declared Natore as free from crime two years ago and the murder was committed to dent my image."
He blamed the killing on the NaldangaAL vice-presidentand said he threatened him repeatedly before in an allegation that Natore District AL General Secretary Hanif Ali Sheikh described as a sign of political vengeance of the ruling BNP.
Police arrested two AL workers over the murder: Fazlul Haque Shah, a schoolteacher and brother of the Naldanga upazila AL general secretary, andAbdus Sattar.
The SP says police are chasing the leads to the killing, adding: "I believe goons, not outlaws carried out the murder."