The family of Rabiul Islam, whom the police claimed to be the main suspect in the attack of Ghoraghat upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Wahida Khanam, has claimed that he is innocent.
They said this during a press conference at the Dinajpur Press Club on Tuesday.
At the time, Rabiul’s mother, brother, uncle and hundreds of local people were present at the press club.
Rahidul Islam, the elder brother of Rabiul, read out a written statement at the time, where he stated that: “On the night of the attack on UNO Wahida and her father Ali Sheikh, Rabiul was at home with us.”
“We even had dinner together. On the following day we came to know about the attack on the UNO from print and electronic media.”
“On the night of September 10, the Detective Branch of Police (DB) took away my brother, remanded him twice, beat him and scared him in different ways and got a false confessional statement out of him,” his brother complained.
On September 3, assailants attacked the official residence of UNO Wahida. They first tied up the doorman and broke in through the ventilators at the back of the house.
The attackers hacked Wahida indiscriminately, leaving her with critical head injuries, and went on to attack her father Ali Sheikh, 70, who rushed in to save her.
The father and daughter were taken to Rangpur Medical College and Hospital.
Later, the UNO was airlifted from Rangpur to the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital in Dhaka by a Bangladesh Air Force helicopter.
Doctors said Wahida's condition is stable and she has been kept in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) at the hospital.
