The details of case statements in at least two cases regarding the recent attack on Biharis in Kurmitola had been filled in without the knowledge of the plaintiffs, the Dhaka Tribune has learnt.
One of the plaintiffs claimed that the police themselves had written the case statement after collecting his signature on a white paper. Another plaintiff said he did not know about the inclusion of six Biharis’ names in the case that he filed, as his original statement had not mentioned any name.
In at least five of the six cases that had been filed following the incident, which claimed the lives of 10 people from the local Bihari community, other Bihari residents of the camp have been named as accused.
Although all the cases filed with the Pallabi police station – which have accused a total of 1,754 unnamed people – have been transferred to the Detective Branch, the police are yet to make a single arrest in connection with the attack.
DB Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Nazmul Alam, however, claimed significant progress in the investigation, saying they would be able to reach a conclusion soon.
Two cases, including one for murder, were primarily filed by the police on Sunday, who also told journalists at the time that local Biharis had filed four more cases. However, the Dhaka Tribune has learnt that law enforcers had handpicked people to become plaintiffs of the cases.
Mobarak Hossain, plaintiff of one of the cases, yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that he did not know about the case as the police had taken his signature on a white paper and written the case statement later. Mobarak added that he did not know the names of the accused or the narration of the incident mentioned in the statement.
In the case filed under the name of Mobarak, who is the committee president of a local mosque that was vandalised during the violence, the plaintiff’s profession has been mentioned as businessman. The case also accused six Biharis – Azad, Arif, Jewel, Sabbir, Nasim and Likhon – who Mobarak claimed he did not know.
Mobarak said he had initially gone to the police station to secure the release of the mosque’s treasurer who was detained by police after suffering a bullet wound during the clash. There, the police asked him to be a plaintiff for a case against the Biharis; a request which he denied.
“However, I wanted to file a case against unnamed people as attackers vandalised the mosque. I could not go to the police station on the following day as I was ill, so they [police] came to my place and took my signature on a white paper where they later wrote the case statement,” he said.
Mobarak said he did not think that Biharis had attacked the mosque.
The same six Biharis had also been named accused in another case filed by Omar Farukh, a tea vendor.
When asked about the case, Farukh told the Dhaka Tribune that he had filed the case as some youths had attacked him on Kalshi Road during the clash, but added that he had not mentioned any name in his case statement, as he could not identify any attackers.
After he was informed that six names were mentioned in his case, Farukh said someone else had included the names in the statement.
The claims by both the plaintiffs were, however, denied by DMP Mirpur Division’s Deputy Commissioner Imtiaz Ahmed, who said: “Nowadays, people are not so foolish that police could be able to force them to sign a white paper. I think a vested quarter has influenced them [plaintiffs] to lie.”
He said the police would welcome if Biharis wanted to file any case in connection with Saturday’s violence.
On the other hand, Md Munna Hossain, the general secretary of Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee’s Kurmitola Branch, alleged that police had refused to file cases when Biharis had gone to the Pallabi police station following the incident.
When asked, Officer-in-Charge of the police station Syed Ziauzzaman, however, denied Munna’s allegation and claimed that no Bihari had come to file any case.
Tension continues to prevail at the Kurmitola Bihari Camp in Mirpur, with most of the shops in the area staying closed yesterday. Many local residents said they could not sleep at night fearing arrest and police harassment.
At least nine members of a family were burnt to death on Saturday when eight homes in the camp were torched following a clash between Biharis and law enforcers, who were also allegedly accompanied by locals.
Another person with rubber-bullet pellet injuries, reportedly from police firing, died of his wounds in hospital the same day.
The clash was reportedly triggered by the setting off of firecrackers on the night of Shab-e-Barat. However, local Biharis have been claiming that local MP Ilias Uddin Mollah was involved in inciting the violence; a claim which the lawmaker had denied.
