At least 30 people, including activists of different political parties, were killed from January to mid-April in Lakshmipur as the district has witnessed a sharp rise in crimes.
Turf wars, political vengeance, drugs trade, family disputes, subversion and extortion have led to a majority of the deaths.
Deaths have also been resulted from gun battles with members of law enforcement agencies.
The continuous emergence of new terrorist groups, not recovering illegals arms and the slow progress in holding trials of murder cases have been blamed for the increase in crimes.
According to data from the district police super’s office, six people were killed in January, six in February, 11 in March and four till April 10. Of them, 14 were political activists – seven from both the Awami League and the BNP.
Apart from the dead, more than 50 people were injured during this period, with some sustaining bullet injuries.
General Secretary of Awami League’s Lakshmipur unit, advocate Nur Uddin Chowdhury Nayan, claimed that activists of his party had been the frequent targets of those of the BNP.
He accused Lakshmipur BNP Organising Secretary advocate Hasibur Rahman of backing terror acts in the district.
But Lakshmipur BNP President Abul Khayer Bhuiyan said Awami League activists had been killed because of intra-party feuds.
“Stern action should be taken against terrorists regardless of their political identities,” he said. Some 20 to 25 terrorist groups operate in the district and their members have been said to be sheltered by politicians.
Chiefs of most of the groups have been killed in shootouts with law enforcement officials and rival gangs. Some have surrendered and been arrested but police failed to recover all the firearms they had used.
Members of these groups have been claimed to be involved mostly in yaba trade and extortion but accusations of killing have also been levelled against them.
Lakshmipur Police Super Shah Mizan Shafiur Rahman said the groups were created by politicians to retain their dominion over their rivals.
“Some leaders also imported illegal arms to use for clinging to power. At the outset, they were able to maintain their authority over those they supplied arms to but the terrorists gradually got out of the politicians’ dominance and created their own groups to establish their individual dominion,” he explained.
“Police have adopted zero tolerance policies to fight terrorism but investigations are often carried out sluggishly.”
The police super also defended cases of deaths in gun battles with police, saying that law enforcement officials are forced to spend bullets if attacked.
“Police cannot be held responsible for deaths resulted from such attacks and counter-attacks. We will nevertheless launch investigation if any policeman is accused of any crime,” added Shafiur.
