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Innocent faces cop brutality

Jessore shopkeeper now fighting for life

Staff Correspondent
He was just an ordinary man with no links to political or criminal activities. Neither did he pose a direct or immediate threat to anyone's life. Yet he was shot by police
and that too at point-blank range.
Aminul Islam Kamal, a victim of shooting during police action on 20-party activists on Wednesday, was now fighting for life at the National Institute of Chest Disease & Hospital (NICDH) in the capi-
tal's Mohakhali.
"Doctors had to cut off part of his lung, as it was riddled with pellets. We operated on him twice to save his life. But he is still not out of danger," said Dr Abdur Rahim,
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registrar of Thoracic surgery department ofNICDH.
Kamal, a 45-year-old shopkeeper in Jessore, was unconscious as of filing this report at 10:30pm yesterday.
On Wednesday afternoon, the BNP-led 20-party alliance organised a human chain in front of Jessore Press Club on Mujib Sarak in protest at Posts and Telecommunications Minister Latif Siddique's derogatory comments On Hajj.
A clash ensued as the opposition activists resisted police's attempts to detain several BNP leaders from the spot.
Amid running battles, the cops beat up people indiscriminately, injuring activists, passersby or journalists. At one stage, they started firing shotgun shells.
According to witnesses, police were firing so recklessly that even a cop suffered pellet wounds.
Sensing danger, Kamal came out of his garment retail shop, "First Craze”, within 30 yards of the spot, and started closing the shutters.
Before he could realise anything, cops pounced on him, kicked him to the ground. And one of the policemen shot him, holding the muzzle of the gun against his left chest, witnesses said.
Critically wounded, Kamal was detained by police and rushed to Jessore Medical College Hospital around 4:00pm.
Doctors asked the family members to take him to the capital as his condition worsened. But it was delayed for several hours as police cited legal bar, saying Kamal was involved in the violence.
After repeated requests, family members were allowed to take Kamal to Dhaka with a four-member police team. They reached the NIDCH at Mohakhali around 3:00am yesterday.
Meanwhile, Tariqul Islam, a standing committee member of BNP, said at a press conference at Jessore Press Club that Kamal is not an activist of their party.
But Enamul Haque, officer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station, said
a case was filed yesterday morning against “126 activists including Kamal, who was present at Wednesday’s protest programme”.
Contacted, Jessore Superintendent of Police Anisur Rahman said, "Kamal and constable Motiur suffered injuries from shots fired by the protesters, not police."
He said primary investigation found that Kamal is an activist of the BNP. "Investigation is going on. If he is found innocent, we will withdraw his name from the case."
Kamal's maternal uncle Sirajul Islam Sikdar said, "Kamal has never been involved in any criminal activities. He used to work under an NGO project in Nilphamari. He came back to Jessore a year ago after the project tenure was over.”
Kamal, the eldest among four sons of freedom fighter late Rezaul Haque Sardar, is a resident of Newtown under Jessore Sadar upazila. Married to Merina Khatun, he is father of a six-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.