Last month’s incident of a baby getting bullet-hit in her mother’s womb in Doarpar of Magura town was the climax of a three-month feud that had been brewing between two rival groups of ruling party supporters.
On the surface, Doarpara – with a population of about 60,000 – is just like any other “sleepy” locality of a small district town in Bangladesh. But the word sleepy has a literal meaning for Magura.
First, Magura is one of the major transit hubs for contraband drugs trade, phensidyl in particular. It is next door to the Benapole land port in the neighbouring Jessore district. Any illegal consignment of the banned cough syrup coming in through the port must pass through Magura.
Second, as a result of this, it is very hard – almost impossible – to find a household in the area that is not in some way involved with phensidyl trade.
According to police sources, there are around 25,000 consumers of the drug in this small area alone. Moreover, people from the neighbouring areas also come here to buy the drug. Overall, phensidyl trade accounts for around Tk30-40 lakh per month.
Until about three months ago, local ruling party supporter Kamrul Bhuiyan – a former organising secretary of the district unit of Awami League’s student body Chhatra League – used to control the entire phensidyl business.
Kamrul is also uncle of little Suraiya, who was hit by a bullet while still in the womb after her mother got shot.
Another local political muscle-man Ali Ahmed – one of the main accused in the case filed in connection with the shooting – used to be a close associate of Kamrul. Together they not only controlled the drug business and extortion but also manipulated tenders for government works.
But things started going south between Kamrul and Ali about three months ago when Kamrul refused to give Ali his fair share of a hefty deal. Ali got angry, broke his association with Kamrul and formed his own group.
Local residents, seeking anonymity for obvious fear of retaliation, said that it was inevitable because both of them also want to run for the post of the local ward councillor in the upcoming municipal elections.
The bigger picture
As is common in almost everywhere in Bangladesh, conflicts between district- and national-level leaders often give rise to smaller local feuds and bloody clashes among their supporters.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Biren Sikder and Prime Minister’s Assistant Personal Secretary (APS) Saifuzzaman Shikhar are the two top figures of the ruling party in Magura.
Biren is a full-time politician. Shikhar, on the other hand, is a government employee and hence cannot directly get involved in politics, but his family, especially his brothers have a lot of influence on district politics.
So, according to local people, there are two clear divisions in Awami League’s politics in Magura.
Interestingly, both Kamrul and Ali were known as supporters of Biren. They had an agreement about not extending support to Awami League candidate Rostam Ali in the July 21 by-polls in Magura because he was loyal to Shikhar.
But in the eleventh hour, that is just two days before the voting, Kamrul’s family decided to extend support to Rostam, who eventually emerged the winner. That also angered Ali.
The Dhaka Tribune has learned that over the last year or so, Kamrul’s allegiance has shifted to Shikhar although his family was still loyal to Biren.
The July 23 shooting
On July 22, a day after the election, following a chase and counter-chase, Ali’s men stabbed one of Kamrul’s close associates, Alamgir.
The next day, Kamrul and 20-30 of his men, all armed, decided to avenge Alamgir’s stabbing. They gathered in front of Kamrul’s residence and at one point left the area in search of Ali’s men.
In the meantime, four to five of Ali’s men including Ajibor – one of the accused in the Suraiya shooting case – was waiting inside another house near Kamrul’s place. When Kamrul and his men left the area, they pulled out their guns and bombs and headed towards Kamrul’s house.
They got inside, firing their guns and blasting bombs, and in the skirmish pregnant Nazma got shot in the abdomen. A bullet went on to hit Suraiya in the womb.
In the firing and blasting, Kamrul’s uncle Momin Bhuiyan also got injured and later died in hospital.
Kamrul’s family claimed that he was ill and was lying in bed inside the house when the attack took place although local witnesses said they had seen Kamrul going in search of Ali’s men.
Rubel Bhuiyan, son of Momin, said Ali and Ajibor led the attack as they knew that no male members were present at the moment except Kamrul, who was ill. “They came to kill Kamrul.”
Ajibor’s mother Rupban Khatun denied all the allegations against her son. She said Ajibor was a licensed contractor and had no connection with the incident. “He was framed with the case because we are Ali’s relative. My other son Rana was also made an accused although he was in Jessore when the incident took place.”
Ali’s family also said he had nothing to do with the shooting. Ali’s elder brother Farooq Ahmed said: “Ali did not even smoke. But now he drinks. Kamrul is the one who made him addicted to alcohol. When Kamrul realised that Ali might become his political rival, he laid a trap for him.”
Ali’s family also alleged that police were being soft to Kamrul’s family.
Updates from Doarpara
In the one month preceding the shooting of the pregnant mother, at least six clashes took place between the supporters of Kamrul and Ali in which at least 10 people were injured.
A local shopkeeper said Kamrul and Ali split ways three months ago but clashes started only in the last week of June.
However, the shopkeeper said that things have been tense but calm since July 23 as Ali’s group has been inactive after the shooting because most of the active members are accused in the case and are now either in jail or on the run.
