Armed criminals yesterday shot former Bangladesh Chhatra League president Enamul Haq Shamim in his car at Dhanmondi in the capital.
Shamim, now a member of the central committee of the Awami League, was taken to the Combined Military Hospital after being treated at Bangladesh Medical College Hospital and also Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Doctors at the DMCH said a bullet pierced between the left wrist and elbow and another the left arm of Shamim, the former vice-president of Jahangirnagar University Central Student Union and brother of Col AKM Aminul Haque, director of the city unit of the National Security Intelligence.
“Both the bullets were taken out. We conducted a surgery but he is not out of danger yet,” said Assistant Professor of DMCH surgery department Ibrahim Khalil. “We formed a medical board which referred him to the CMH. There he has been kept at the intensive care unit.”
Talking to reporters at the emergency unit of the DMCH, Shamim said he did not know why he had been attacked and could not identify the attackers either.
Immediately after Shamim was shifted to DMCH from Bangladesh Medical College Hospital, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Benazir Ahmed, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan, Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif and several others went there to visit him.
Benazir said police had been directed to detain the attackers.
Maruf Hossain, deputy commissioner of Ramna division police, said they were investigating the incident.
Describing the attack, Shamim said it had taken place soon after he had come out of his Dhanmondi residence around 9:30am.
“I sat [in the car] behind the driver. When the driver slowed down to take a turn near Ibn Sina Hospital, three youths on a motorbike came closer and shot at me. I lied down but got hit in the hands,” he said.
Driver Kamal also said he could not identify any of the attackers.
However, on condition of anonymity, a number of Awami League leaders and activists told the Dhaka Tribune that the attack might be linked to elections in Shakhipur and Naria upazilas of Shariatpur.
Another former Chhatra League president said two failed candidates in the elections, who are Jubo League leaders, were angry with Shamim as he had directly worked against them during the poll.
“Although I am not certain, I suspect the attack on Shamim might have stemmed from the anger,” he said.
Shamim was thinking of participating in parliamentary elections and some other student leaders thought the same, said sources, adding that anyone among them could have made the attack.
Kamal told reporters that Shamim’s car had come under attack around 9:30am when Shamim, along with his uncle Nasir Hossain, was going to Stamford University.
None of his relatives commented on the attack or named anyone they suspected was involved in it.
Meanwhile, Chhatra League leaders and activists brought out a procession from Madhu’s Canteen of Dhaka University in protest against the attack.
JU BCL blocks Dhaka-Aricha highway
As the news of the attack spread, Chhatra League leaders and activists of Jahangirnagar University unit, led by President Mahmudur Rahman Jony and General Secretary Rajib Ahmed Rasel, staged demonstration on the campus and demanded immediate detention and punishment of the attackers.
Over a hundred men gathered on the Dhaka-Aricha highway around 1:30pm and kept the road blocked until 2pm, which created a tailback on both sides.
Rasel told the Dhaka Tribune that they had staged the protest as per an instruction of the central committee of Chhatra League.
University Proctor Professor Dr Tapan Kumar Saha said: “Chhatra League men demonstrated to protest against the attack on Shamim as part of their central programme.”
Shamim was the president of the central unit of Chhatra League from 1994 to 1998. He was the vice-president of Jahangirnagar University Central Student Union from 1989 to 1991.
