More than 200 people allegedly stormed a maternal and child health centre in Mirpur after midnight Thursday, tied up security guards, looted medicines and equipment and brought in heavy machinery to demolish the facility, while police now acknowledge officers were at the scene.
Four people arrested over the attack have told police they took part in exchange for money, according to Shah Ali police.
They have since been sent to jail, pushing a more consequential question to the centre of the investigation: who hired them, who organised the operation, and whether political influence helped a long-running land dispute culminate in an overnight takeover.
Local residents, businesspeople and BNP activists interviewed by Dhaka Tribune alleged that reserved-seat MP Ferdousi Ahmed Misty, a joint convener of Dhaka North BNP, led a faction seeking control of the Radda MCH-FP Centre site in Mirpur-1 and used influence over local police to facilitate the takeover.
The allegations have not been established by investigators.
Misty has denied involvement, telling media that although her name was associated with Somomona Dokandar Samabay Samiti Limited, she had no role in the vandalism and wanted police to investigate the incident according to law.
Media also reported allegations that two local BNP factions had long been seeking control of the property.
The focus on the organisers intensified after Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mosleh Uddin Ahmed visited the devastated centre on Saturday afternoon.
After inspecting the site, the DMP chief said the extent of destruction suggested the operation could not have been carried out within half an hour or an hour.
Structures had been demolished, while equipment and machinery reported to have been inside were missing.
He said police were investigating whether there had been negligence or failure by officers during the vandalism and looting.
That question has gained significance after Shah Ali Police Station acknowledged that police were present while the demolition was underway.
The officer-in-charge confirmed the presence of police but did not provide a clear explanation as to why the attackers were not stopped or detained at the time.
Hundreds arrive, bulldozers follow
According to the case filed by Radda Executive Director Dr Nasrin Akhtar, more than 200 masked people carrying locally made weapons entered the centre around midnight on Thursday after overpowering two security guards.
Medical equipment, medicines, vaccines, cash and other materials were allegedly taken before heavy machinery was used to bring down the complex.
Other reporting puts the number involved at between 200 and 250.
When Dhaka Tribune visited on Saturday, the aftermath was visible across the premises.
The boundary wall had been broken, structures demolished and debris scattered across the compound.
Doors and windows had been removed or damaged, while medicines and other materials lay on the floor.
Branches of a large mango tree had also been cut.
At the main entrance, a signboard identified Somomona Dokandar Samabay Samiti Limited as the registered owner of the 10-katha plot, saying the land had been allotted by the National Housing Authority.
The cooperative insists the property belongs to it.
Md Babul, caretaker of its office at Baishakhi Bhaban in Mirpur-1, told Dhaka Tribune that the organisation had received the land from the government and had merely reclaimed possession.
The underlying ownership dispute, however, remains unresolved in the material reviewed by Dhaka Tribune.
Witnesses describe a prolonged operation
Md Saiful, who has managed the rear section of the health centre for nearly two decades, said he rushed to the area after learning that the premises were being demolished.
He estimated that around 300 people were involved, using hammers, sledgehammers and a bulldozer.
A BNP activist and businessman in the area, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he reached the site around 1am and saw several police officers before they left.
He alleged that the operation was carried out under Misty’s leadership with police assistance.
Tanvir, owner of Mirpur Surgical, alleged that people brought in from around the nearby Shah Ali shrine were used in the demolition and looting.
He said he saw no police when he reached the site.
Footpath vendor Al-Amin said the scale of the operation initially led him to believe that an official eviction drive was taking place.
“We assumed a magistrate had arrived and an eviction drive was underway,” he said.
He later saw a bulldozer demolishing the centre and alleged that some people who had gathered in the area for an urs at the Shah Ali shrine joined the vandalism and looting.
Doctors say police were alerted
Dr Nasrin Akhtar said centre officials contacted police during the attack but the facility could not be protected.
She alleged that people operating under the cooperative’s banner had been trying to take over the land for around five years and finally succeeded through Thursday night’s operation.
“We have government authorization to operate and provide healthcare services here,” she said, demanding exemplary punishment for those involved.
Radda itself says it began operations in 1974, when Radda Barnen, then Swedish Save the Children, launched a maternal and child healthcare project for disadvantaged communities in Mirpur.
Its account is supported by the organisation’s own history, while the government’s facility registry lists Radda’s Mirpur operation as an NGO clinic.
The centre provides reproductive and family planning services, antenatal and postnatal care, child immunisation, paediatric care and community health programs.
Dr Nasrin said around 400 mothers and children normally receive services there each day.
Vaccines on the roadside
The destruction has already moved the dispute beyond competing claims over land.
On Saturday, children were being vaccinated under a tarpaulin beside the road because the facility could no longer provide normal services.
Dr Iqbal Jewel Majid, director of Radda’s Community Health Programme, said staff had continued administering measles vaccines despite the destruction.
“Some are waiting on chairs, while others are standing. The mothers and children are suffering in the heat,” he said.
Dr Rijuana, another physician at the centre, alleged that the land had been taken by force and said the organisation had received no government notice ordering it to leave.
She said equipment and supplies had been looted and questioned why sufficient police protection was not provided to a functioning healthcare institution.
Four arrested, but who hired them?
Dr Nasrin filed a case with Shah Ali Police Station after the attack.
Police have arrested four people -- Sohel, 22, Jewel, 23, Jihad Hasan, 21, and Rabbi, 20 -- in connection with the incident.
DNCC Administrator Shafiqul Islam Khan said the government would not tolerate such incidents and instructed police to bring those responsible to justice.
The arrests establish only the alleged role of some of those who physically took part.
They do not yet answer the larger questions surrounding an operation that required hundreds of people, heavy machinery and considerable time: who mobilised and paid the attackers, who ultimately sought possession of the property, and why police present in the area failed to stop the demolition.
