‘Picked up’ 6 years back, no trace yet
FROM PAGE 1
WHAT HAPPENED ON MAY 26, 2017
“I was stacking up hay in a field when I heard a commotion on the road and went there to see what was going on. I saw police detaining the four men,” said Akter Mia, one of the witnesses.
As the police were taking them to Bashgari Police Outpost on foot, local Awami League leader Shahed Sarkar along with some men approached them and requested the officers to release them.
As the policemen refused to release them, Shahed’s supporters stopped the police and started chanting slogans.
At one point, the police opened fire and fatally shot a man named Mustafa.
The police team could take the four men to the outpost, but a violent clash between locals and police took place.
The 12 other witnesses also gave similar accounts of the events. One of them is an employee of Raipura Bhumi Office.
After hearing about the clash, he and the assistant commissioner went to the scene in a microbus.
While returning to Raipura town, he saw a police pick-up taking the four men to Syedabad ferry ghat from Bashgari outpost, he said, adding that OC Azharul was in the pickup.
“The time was around 6:30pm and it was drizzling. The detained men were wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests,” he said, requesting not to be named.
“When our microbus crossed the Pagla river, the police vehicle was still at the ferry ghat.”
He added that he clearly recognised the four men, known in the area as political activists, on the bank of the river.
“One of the policemen told us that they detained the four men from a boat in Rajnagar area.”
Local lawmaker Raziuddin Raju on February 11, 2018, at a rally in Raipura said, “Where are big leaders like Rup Mia? Police know how they had swallowed them.”
A footage of his speech went viral on social media at that time. Several newspapers ran reports on his speech.
When he was asked about what happened to the men, he said, “A clash took place after Rup Mia and others first attacked the police with spears. I do not know what happened later.”
Asked about his viral comment, he denied saying such things.
He added that he was willing to help the families find out if the missing men became victims of enforced disappearance. “But none of them ever contacted me.”
However, Rup’s wife Nasima Begum and Azizul’s elder brother Horun Mia said family members of each of the victims met Raju at his office and asked for help soon after the incident.
POLICE ACCOUNT FALSE
A day after the clash, Sub-Inspector Raijul Alam filed a case accusing 23 named and 200 to 300 unnamed people of attacking police.
The complaint said when a police team was taking Rup Mia to Bashgari outpost, his supporters attacked with firearms, crude bombs and sharp weapons and snatched him away from custody.
The case mentioned names of several witnesses.
But two of them, Aminul Islam alias Khokon Doctor and Abdus Samad, told The Daily Star that they were not present at the scene and they did not even know that police made them witnesses to the incident.
Both of them said they were in Raipura town, around 6km away from the scene, at the time.
Aminul, who now lives in the US, said naming him as a witness was wrong.
Abdus Samad said he returned home from the town at night and heard that police picked up the four men.
FAMILIES IN DISTRESS
Azizul’s elder brother Horun Mia and Rup’s nephew Moyen Uddin alleged that police detained them and shot them in their leg a few months after the incident.
Police then falsely accused them of carrying firearms and narcotics, they added.
Harun and Moyen said their legs had to be amputated.
Horun, also the Bashgari Union Swechhasebak League president, alleged that on November 20 in 2018, police picked him up from his house in Raipura.
The police blindfolded him and tied his hands and took him to a quiet place and shot him in the leg.
Moyen said immigration police arrested him at Dhaka airport on September 17, 2017 while he was going to the Middle East.
“I was handed over to a three-member police team from Raipura. They tied my hands and blindfolded me and took me to Raipura in a microbus.
“I was shot in my right leg. I screamed in pain. When my eyes were unfolded, I saw the OC [Azharul] standing before me holding a gun,” said Moyen.
Deputy Inspector General Amena Begum, who was the superintendent of police in Narsingdi at the time, said when several thousand people attacked a police outpost and a policeman was seriously wounded, “I ordered the local OC and circle ASP to release Rup Mia, who is a heinous criminal. Police are still looking for him.”
She added that the three other men were not detained by the police.
Azharul, the former OC of Raipura, denied the allegation of shooting anyone.
The current Superintendent of Police Kazi Ashraful Azim declined requests for comments on the issue.