At least 18 people, including a police sub-inspector, were injured when armed criminals, backed by a member of parliament, swooped on them at the site of an under-construction building in Dhaka's Gulshan yesterday.
According to local sources, the criminals were Jhenaidah lawmaker Tahjib Alam Siddique's men who has a conflict of interest with the builder, Borak Real Estate, centring the land of the construction site.
Witnesses said that around 11am, a team of five officials of Desco (Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited) came to road number 46 to remove three electricity poles located in front of the site whose holding number is 34-37/A.
According to a source, the electricity poles were impeding the construction work at the site and the builder had been requesting the Desco to remove those poles for some time.
However, MP Tahjib, who wants to get hold of the land of the construction site, did not want the poles removed. If the construction does not progress then it is easier for him to grab that land, sources said.
In no time, scores of armed criminals came out of the nearby Doreen Tower – owned by MP Tahjib – and attacked the Desco officials and prevented them from removing the poles. At one point, they forced the officials to leave the area.
Seeing this, Shafiqur Rahman, project manager of Borak, went there to protest the attack. But the criminals pounced on him. When more people from the project rushed to Shafiqur's help, the criminals beat them up too.
On getting information, police Sub-Inspector Ferdous went to the area and tried to bring the situation under control. But too was badly injured by the criminals. Ferdous was rendered helpless after another group of criminals started hurling bricks from the roof of Doreen Tower.
Later, several officials from the Gulshan police station rushed to the spot with more force and brought the situation under control.
Others injured in the attack include project admin officer Maj (retd) Rashid Siddique, electrician Roman Sikdar, supervisor Manik and employees Allauddin, Jiarul, Russel, Liton, Chotton, Malek, Hiru, Nazrul, Sabdul, Shamim, Shafik and Selim.
They were given treatment in a local clinic and the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Manager Shafiqul said MP Tahjib himself joined the mob at one point and instead of stopping his men, he ordered them to shoot everyone who came in front. “I have just shown you a trailer today. I would run a river of blood if needed,” Shafiq quoted Tahjib as shouting.
Shafiq also said that they had received threats from the same group several times before.
Desco Assistant Engineer Golam Rabbani, who went there to remove the poles, said: “Today [Tuesday] we went to remove the poles after taking permission from the authorities. But despite repeated attempts, we could not do our work because of local problems.”
Mahbub Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of Police's Gulshan Division, said: “So far, we have detained four people and are preparing to file a case in this connection.”