Police were yet to identify the rapists and killers of a nine-year-old girl whose body was found inside a sack floating in a small pond in Sujantek area of Bhatara in the capital on Tuesday.
An angry gathering of demonstrators yesterday locked in a clash with the police at Notun Bazar when the law enforcers prevented them from blocking the road while demonstrating for immediate arrest of the killers of Farzana Akhter Liza.
Some 20 people, including six policemen from Gulshan and Bhatara police stations, were injured during the hour-long clash. The police fired teargas shells and used water cannon to disperse the demonstrators.
Liza, daughter of car driver Faruk Hossain and a student of a local school, went missing on Monday afternoon after she had gone to a store near her residence to buy a pencil.
Her uncle Hasibul told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that they had made public announcements on loudspeakers in the area on Monday evening about the incident. The family had also filed a general diary (GD) with the Bhatara police station.
The next morning locals of Sujantek saw a sack floating in a small pond and recovered the body of the girl.
Hasibul said the hands of his niece were tied and there were numerous marks of injury on the body.
A case was filed with the police station although the family did not mention any names.
Hundreds of locals under the banners of three protest platforms took to the street around 11am yesterday, burnt tyres, blocked roads, halting traffic movement. Students of several educational institutions in the area also joined the demonstration.
Sarwar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Bhatara police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that the locals had wanted to hold a human chain and started gathering at Notun Bazar around 10am. But as they were causing hindrance to the traffic movement, the police convinced them to leave the place.
However, the demonstrators gathered again after a while and set fire to tyres, blocking the road near the Bhatara police station. The law enforcers then charged batons to disperse the crowd, said the OC. In the meantime, forces from the Gulshan police station also arrived at the scene.
Rounds of chase and counter-chase ensued and at one point the angry mob started to approach the police station around noon.
It was then that the police used water cannon to disperse the demonstrators, said OC Sarwar.
Sub-Inspector Abu Al Bashar, who is investigating the case, said they had arrested a local youth named Mahbub Hassan Sourav, 19, in connection with the murder on Thursday. Sourav had been produced before a Dhaka court was taken for remand for three days upon the court’s order.
The police said Sourav was known as a spoilt youth in the locality. A number of demonstrators said Sourav, son of a contractor named Rezaul, was the culprit.
