3 arrested for ‘sabotage’

Police have arrested three people in Gazipur on charge of ‘planning sabotage’ ahead of the first anniversary of the Jan 5 general election.

Police claimed BNP Standing Committee member Goyeshwar Chandra Roy was involved in the plan.

The arrestees are Turag Thana BNP president Atiqur Rahman Atiq, a self-proclaimed activist of the party, Mohiuddin, and owner of a local engineering workshop Mizanur Rahman.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman said law enforcers first arrested Mohiuddin with 54 triangular iron objects early on Friday.

The two others were nabbed based on the information divulged by Mohiuddin, he added.

Police said the objects were made at Mizan’s Feni Workshop at Turag with thick iron sheet.

Rahman said: “If planted on roads, these objects will puncture vehicle tyres. These have been made to create anarchy ahead of Jan 5.”

The ruling alliance assumed office for the second consecutive term through the balloting that the Awami League-led government staged amid boycott by BNP-led combine, which was demanding voting under a caretaker administration.

The BNP announced that it would observe the day as a ‘black day for democracy’.

The three were nabbed after police arrested Goyeshwar Roy from Dhaka’s Siddeshwari over the attacks on Awami League MP Chhabi Biswas.

The three arrestees were brought before journalists at DB office, where Mohiuddin claimed himself as a BNP activist and said Atiq paid him Tk 1,000 to make the iron objects.

He claimed Roy once inquired whether the objects had already been made. He said he was unaware of their use.

Atiq, however, denied paying Mohiuddin the money.