It was almost 10 yesterday. A balmy winter morning. Nazmin Haque, daughter of Awami League leader Enamul Haque burnt alive last Monday, was sifting through the burnt wreckage of her father’s shop.
Three days into the murder Nazmin was looking for something left behind by her father so that she could treasure it forever as a lasting memory of her father.
Enamul Haque was burnt alive inside his shop on Monday at Shibganj Upazila Bazaar of Chapainawabganj district.
Nazmin with tears welling up in her eyes said she could not even touch her father for one last time.
Eyewitness said some youths, never before seen in the area, aged between 20 and 25 appeared from nowhere at 6:30pm and started to vandalise the shop. They set fire to a motorbike parked in front of the shop.
Enamul, president of Shibganj Banik Samity and upazila Awami League advisor, sensing danger asked salesmen of the shop to bring down the shutter and leave the place quickly.
All of them dashed out of the shop but the owner could not make it. He stayed back inside the shop fearing attack once he is out. “He could never think that those attackers would put his shop on fire,” says Nazmin.
The shop is just within two-minute walking distance from Shibganj Police Station and five-minute from fire service and civil defense office but the rescue began almost one hour after the shop was sent on fire.
Before police and fire service men reached the spot Enamul was roasted alive and hardware and painting materials worth around Tk50,00,000 gutted.
When asked about the delay AKM Mizanur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Shibganj Police Station, told the Dhaka Tribune that the fire service could not make it in time as the roads leading to the shop were narrow.
About cases in this connection he said: “We have waited for two days for the family to respond but as they have not yet filed any case we are preparing to do it and investigation in this regard is on to trace the criminals.”
As he was asked about the reason behind the attack OC Mizanur blamed the cadres of BNP leader Salahuddin as what he said the attack was launched after the arrest of the BNP leader.
However, locals of the area gave a different version. Many people of Shibganj said local Jamaat unit leader Modasser and his associates asked for Tk1, 00,000 as party donation recently from Enamul but he refused to pay the money. Some businessmen, small traders and rickshaw pullers, though tight-lipped initially fearing Jamaat-Shibir men, in return for anonymity blamed the Islamist party for the murder.
When asked why the family did not file any case Enamul’s daughter said they were scared of further attack if the case is filed. When enquired about the identities of the attackers she flew into a rage: “Ask police who they were.”
Tasiqul Islam, general secretary of Banik Samiti, told the Dhaka Tribune that a couple of months back some miscreants vandalised the shop of Jamaat leader Modasser and since then his party men have been demanding donation from Enamul.
He said they even threatened him.
However, Abdul Aziz, general secretary of upazila Jamaat, evading the question of who might have killed the Awami League man he told the Dhaka Tribune that the day Enamul was killed local people was protesting the arrest of BNP leader Salahuddin.
