Awami League lawmaker Mostofa Jalal Mahiuddin yesterday filed a case against nine associates of rebel candidate and former Awami League lawmaker Haji Mohammad Selim in connection with the bomb attacks on his election campaign on Thursday.
More than 10 people, including three women and a child, sustained injuries after bombs were hurled at the rally beside Islambagh Eidgah in Lalbagh around 5:30pm. The incident occurred when the rally concluded and participants were preparing to bring out a procession.
Mostofa Jalal Mahiuddin is contesting in the parliamentary elections from Dhaka 7 constituency, opposing Haji Mohammad Selim.
The nine associates of Haji Selim, who is a joint secretary of Dhaka city unit Awami League, were identified as Delwar Hossain, Shahidul Islam, Md Selim, Md Mintu, Abul Hossain, Md Jahangir Alam, Md Ibrahim, Md Rana and Md Jewel.
Sub-Inspector Shakhawat Hossain of Chawkbazar police station said the Awami League lawmaker had filed the case against the nine persons accusing them of conducting the bomb attacks at his rally as per their alleged attempt to kill people and foil the programme.
The SI said all the nine accused were locals from Lalbagh and Chawkbazar areas. Local sources said the nine accused were also the co-accused in many other cases filed against Haji Selim as they were close to the former Awami lawmaker.
However, none were yet arrested till the filing of this report at 7pm.
When asked, Deputy Commissioner Harun-ur-Rashid at Lalbagh Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said: “All the nine accused belonged to Haji Mohammad Selim but we did not arrest or detain anybody yet as many mysteries over the incident, apart from the political affiliations in it, were still shrouded.”
The DC said without being sure of the involvement of anybody through investigation, they would not arrest or detain anybody as the matter was also a sensitive one.
Earlier on Thursday, Mostofa Jalal Mahiuddin had indirectly pointed fingers at Haji Selim for the attacks, saying that he had seen many of the latter’s goons present near the rally venue.
However, Haji Selim rejected the allegations and told the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday that he had no interests in such activities.