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A curious case of vandalism

Star Report
Though police claimed there were incidents of violence as well as vandalising and torching vehicles in Tongi on Sunday, witnesses said otherwise.
In addition, the human haulier police seized on the day, allegedly vandalised during a demonstration protesting the postponement of Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) polls by the High Court (HC), was found to be in an almost unscathed condition at Tongi Police Station.
According to BNP activists, they staged a demonstration in Tongi College gate area in the afternoon, protesting the HC move.
Soon afterwards, police rushed to the spot and detained BNP Vice-Chairman Abdullah Al Noman and "12 other” party leaders and activists near home of Hasan Uddin Sarkar, BNP mayor candidate.
Later, Noman was released and the rest were sent to jail.
The 12 filed bail petitions on Tuesday, but the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court of Gazipur rejected the plea. They then moved the petition to the District Session Judge's Court.
The court fixed May 24 for hearing, which meant they will have to remain behind bars for more than two weeks.
"The case is false and politically moti-
vated," Defence lawyer Monjur Morshed Prince told The Daily Star yesterday.
Just 10 days before voting, the HC on Sunday stayed the GCC elections for three months following a writ petition filed by an Awami League leader. Soon, BNP men started gathering at BNP mayoral candidate's house and staged demonstration protesting the HC decision.
Within one and a half hours, police raided adjacent areas, said the party activists.
Police arrested 13 BNP leaders from the spot. The next day, police filed a case with Tongi Police Station mentioning names of 103 persons including the arrested 12.
In the case, 200 BNP-Jamaat leaders and activists were made accused of "vandalising vehicles and creating a chaotic situation" in Tongi College gate area.
Police also claimed that they seized a vandalised human haulier from the spot.
According to the case document, along with a vandalised human haulier with a broken windowpane, police also seized pieces of broken glass and around 10 large and small bricks from the spot.
However, while visiting Tongi Police Station on Monday, it was seen that the vehicle was parked on the premises and it was not vandalised.
Kamal Hossain, officer-in-charge of the police station, said, "The case was filed based on evidences. I will not make any further comment."
When asked if it is believable that around 250 people vandalised only a windowpane of the vehicle, Kamal said the demonstrators "vandalised many vehicles, but police only found one on the spot".
The Daily Star spoke with many of the witnesses. They, however, said otherwise. This newspaper withheld their identities for security reasons.
Mohammed, a businessman inTongi area, said there was a crowd adjacent to Sarker's house but he did not see any incident of vandalising or torching vehicles.
Ahmed, another witness, said BNP leaders and activists started thronging Sarker's house at 4:00pm. "Some chanted slogans protesting the stay order in the presence of police. I did not witness any untoward situation there."
Almost all the accused in the case are either relatives or followers of Sarker.
BNP alleged that police have filed the "false" case to harass the party leaders and activists.
"Fearing defeat, the government used the law enforcers to repress us. The false and fabricated case filed against the BNP men is a part of that conspiracy," said Fazlul Haque Milon, president ofGazipur district unit of BNP.
(Our Gazipur correspondent contributed to this report)