BNP acting secretary general Fakrul Islam Alamgir, along with 20 other leaders and activists from BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Islami Chhatra Shibir were sued for the arson attack to a bus that killed a police constable and injured two others on Tuesday night at the capital’s Banglamotor.
Sub-Inspector Nazmul Islam of Ramna police station filed the case yesterday alleging that two unknown criminals riding a motorcycle carried had out the attack with petrol bombs following the plan, conspiracy and influence of those 18 men and their financial support.
BNP standing committee members Mirja Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Joint Secretary Generals Aman Ullah Aman and Barkat Ullah Bhulu, Dhaka City unit BNP Secretary
General Abdu Salam, Joint Secretary General Salauddin Ahmed, acting Jamaat secretary general Shafiqur Rahman, central committee member Shafiqul Islam Masud, JCD acting president Saiful Islam Firoj
and acting general secretary Obaidul Huq Nasir were among the others accused.
SI Nazmul in his case statement said the attack was made as part of their attempt to break the morale of the police. He also said these people had been implicated in the crime in light of their speeches at different rallies and meetings.
The case statement is quite similar to another, filed for an arson attack on a bus that killed one, and injured 18 others at Shahbagh on November 28.
The accusations made against the political leaders in that case were also the same. Fakhrul, Mirza Abbas, Aman and BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi are accused in that case.
Police said they had not yet identified the killers or arrested anyone in connection with the attack in Banglamotor.
Traffic Constable Ferdows Khalil, 42, was burnt alive and police Constable Faizur Rahman and Bayezed Ahmed injured when several unidentified miscreants attacked a requisitioned police bus with petrol bombs, around 11pm at Banglamotor.
They also exploded 10-12 crude bombs while fleeing the scene.
Eyewitnesses said a group of criminals, two of whom were riding a motorcycle, hurled petrol bombs while the vehicle was on its way to Rajarbagh carrying policemen who had ended their shifts.
Meanwhile, the condition of injured Constable Faizul Islam and driver Bayezid Ahmed is critical. They are undergoing treatment at the Burn and Plastic Surgery unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Doctors at the Burn and Plastic Surgery unit said Faizul was unable to speak as his throat was damaged in the fire while driver Bayezid had sustained burns on 75% of his body.
Driver Mayezid said he had jumped out of the bus by breaking a window glass when the petrol bombs were hurled at the vehicle.
After the incident, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandker and top police officials visited the victims at the DMCH on the early hours of yesterday. The IGP vowed of sparing no one and condemned the attack as an attack on the state and the state engine.
The body of deceased Traffic Constable Ferdows Khalil was sent to his village home of Nagervita in Gaibandha for burial yesterday afternoon.
Khalil had joined the police in 1991 and he had been transferred to the DMP few months ago.
