Law enforcement agencies have failed to unearth the mystery behind a shootout at the office of BNP chief Khaleda Zia in Gulshan even after six weeks of analysing the CCTV footage.
However, members of the intelligence department claim they are about to reveal what happened. So far, they not only failed to arrest anyone in this regard but also failed to explain how the criminals arrived at and fled the scene after firing the shots.
According to reports, unidentified youths on motorcycles rode past Khaleda Zia’s office firing guns at 11:12pm on March 31. No one was injured. She was inside the office at the time, having held a meeting with the 18-party opposition alliance from 9pm to 10:15pm. A general diary was filed in this connection.
The BNP alleged that three shots were fired and blamed people from the ruling party for the attack. Police, however, said they had information of only one gunshot.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, an official of the probe team said a team led by a sub-inspector of public order management was on duty during the incident. A Central Security Forces team, which is responsible for the opposition leader’s security, was also on duty. Both teams were present at the time of the incident.
The officer said they interrogated both the teams but they failed to give any accurate answer or any clue of how the criminals either arrived or fled after the shooting. The security personnel said they only saw criminals going away on a motorcycle.
The investigating officer, Motlubur Rahman, sub-inspector of Gulshan police station, told the Dhaka Tribune they were trying to trace the criminals from different angles, including analysing witnesses accounts and scrutinising other evidence.
The deputy commissioner of the Gulshan division of the DMP, Lutfar Kabir, said they had failed to trace anyone from the CCTV footage that was collected from the BNP chairperson’s office since the video quality was poor. “However, we are investigating the incident earnestly,” he added.
The investigation unit of police said members of Crime Scene of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) cordoned off part of the road in front of the office and collected evidence.
The CID is now analysing the data, sources at the unit said.