A member of Military Police has become the third law enforcer in less than a month to be attacked with sharp weapons while on check post duty in the capital city.
Yesterday, Samidul Islam, a lance corporal of Military Police (MP), was injured after being hacked with a machete by a man in the Kachukhet area near Dhaka Cantonment around 9:30am.
In a press release issued around 5pm, the Inter Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) said that Samidul was hacked from the back with a sharp weapon by a pedestrian.
The ISPR also said that the victim suffered minor injuries and was undergoing treatment at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka.
It said that on-duty military personnel detained a suspected attacker but his name was withheld “for the sake of investigation, which has already started.”
The police could not give any detail about the incident yesterday and Shikder Mohammad Shamim Hossain, OC of the Kafrul police station, confirmed that no cases had been filed in connection with the attack as of last night.
This attack follows two similar recent attacks on law enforcers on check post duty.
On November 4, three motorbike-riding miscreants killed a member of Industrial Police and injured another in Ashulia near Dhaka. International terrorist group Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack just like they had done for the killings of two foreigners about a month before that.
On October 22, an assistant sub-inspector of police at a check post was hacked to death near the Parbat Cinema in Dhaka’s Gabtoli.
Witness accounts
Around 9:30am yesterday, Samidul was having an altercation with a rickshaw-puller, whom he had stopped for entering a road that is off limits to rickshaws.
A man, who was crossing the road near them, suddenly attacked the policeman from behind, hacking him on the back indiscriminately. At one point, another military policeman, who was on duty in front of the DGFI office, came to Samidul’s rescue.
In the meantime, the attacker fled towards the North Kafrul High School – about a kilometre from the crime scene. He ran into a multi-storey building near the school gate, said several witnesses.
A joint team of Military Police members and local people chased down the attacker, who was finally detained from the building nearly an hour later. Two more suspects were arrested later.
According to a witness, Faridul Islam who runs a confectionery near the school, said that he had seen a man in lungi and T-shirt running towards the school around 10am.
“He was holding a knife, the kind that is used for butchering cattle; it had blood stains on it. The man had beard and did not look like an ordinary rickshaw-puller,” Faridul told the Dhaka Tribune.
Shobha Khanom, who lives in a flat on the fourth floor of the building, said: “Around 10am, I was working in the kitchen when I heard the doorbell ring. My son, who is six years old, opened the door. I came to the door and saw that a man with a big blood-stained knife in his hand standing there.
“Soon my brother-in-law Sumon came from his room and asked who the man was. The man replied that he was looking for a place to hide because he was being chased by a mob. Then Sumon told him to go to the terrace. The man then left our flat and we closed the door,” she said.
Shobha said that police had later detained Sumon.
According to Madhobi, another resident of the building, the man stayed in the building for at least 10 minutes. She also said she had heard police making an announcement on a loudspeaker, asking the man to come down or else they would enter the building and shoot him down.
The Dhaka Tribune also tried to talk to the owner of the house, a middle aged woman, who lives on the first floor. The only information she gave was that the police had detained the security guard of the building named Harunur Rashid for questioning.
Police say
When contacted, Md Kaiumuzzaman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Mirpur Zone, told the Dhaka Tribune: “Police detained three to four people from the building for questioning. If they are found guilty, they would be placed on trial. If they are innocent, police will let them go.”
He also said that they still do not know if any of the detainees was the attacker.
Meanwhile, a little while after the incident, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah told reporters at the DMP headquarters that there were similarities among the ways Military Police member Samidul, policeman Ibrahim and Industrial Police member Mukul were attacked.
He said police believe that there are specific reasons behind these attacks. “A certain group is attacking the law enforcers to create panic and unrest in the country.
“Those who torched and vandalised cars, killed general people and attacked law enforcers during their political movement are now carrying out these killings.”
