AL's Nanak, Azam cleared of arson

Ruling Awami League leaders Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Mirza Azam have been cleared of all charges over a 2004 arson case in which 11 were killed.

On Sept 24, at the fag end of the government's tenure, the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Keshab Roy Chowdhury acquitted them.

The information, however, came out on Sunday, a time when top Opposition leaders are being implicated on a slew of arson charges.

As journalists dug out the matter, the court's general registrar Sub-Inspector Mahmudur Rahman admitted it.

Awami League's Organising Secretary Nanak, central committee member Azam, former Dhaka Mayor Mohammad Hanif's son Abu Sayed Khokon were among the 18 people to have been acquitted in the case.

On Jun 4, 2004 a state-run double-decker was torched with gunpowder at Shahbagh in Dhaka. The BNP-led four-party combine was in office then.

BNP leaders had blamed the then opposition Awami League leaders for the incident as there was a general strike call the following day.

Now in the Opposition and being blamed for killing people in arson, the BNP leaders are frequently referring to the nine-year old incident and saying the Awami League has a history of killing people by setting fire to vehicles.

The BNP is fervently rejecting its association with the recent spate of arson in which a number of people have been killed much the same way the Awami League had denied its involvement with the Shahbagh arson incident in 2004.

Police had filed a case over the June 4 incident. Names of several Awami League big shots had come up in the confessional statement of one Shafiqul Islam Kalu, arrested over the arson.

Kalu had later claimed that police had made him spell out the names.

Fifteen people have been killed in arson attacks in the BNP-led 18-Party alliance's ongoing agitation for a non-party government's supervision of general elections.

A Molotov cocktail was hurled at a bus at Shahbagh on Nov 28 in which 18 people were injured. Three of them have died.

Police have accused BNP's spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas, Vice-Chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka, and Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi in a case filed over the Nov 28 attack.

Two activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, BNP's student wing, have been detained. Police claimed Ujjal Hossain and Sohel Chan had named several BNP leaders during interrogation.

Others acquitted in the 2004 arson case are Dinesh Sarkar, Abdul Mannan, Jahangir Alam, Shahidul Islam Thandu, Abu Hannan Siddiqui, Md Monir, Ujjal Mahmud, Rejaul karim, Md Masum, Anowar Hossain Sujon, Shafiqul Islam Kalu, Gazi Habibul Alam, Hasanur Rahman, AFM Mizanur Rahman, and Ruhul Amin.

Eight separate investigation officers had probed the case but none could press charges against the accused in the court. The case's last investigation officer CID's Assistant Superintendent of Police Khandker Abdul Halim filed the final report on Feb 7 this year.

The report does not name anyone involved with the incident. The judge had maintained that there was no chance of resolving the case and let the accused go.

Two-year old 'Meem', 10-year old 'Nabila', and 15-year old Rehan Uddin were among the victims of the arson nine years ago.

Apart from them, Abdul Jalil, Yasmin Begum, Delowar Hossain, Forkan Molla, Firoza Begum, 'Wahidur', Khadiza Khan and an unidentified male had also died in the fire.

A 14-year old boy, Monir Hossain, was burnt to death in an arson in Gazipur last month. Dhaka College student Ohidur Rahman and child transport worker 'Mehedi' are the victims during the Opposition's latest agitations.

Children, too, are not being spared. Several of them are among the arson victims undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.