Top cops’ comments on Tangail shooting irk Suranjit

Senior Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta has taken a dig at top police officers for their comments on the shooting at Tangail last Friday that left four people dead.

He said it was only “natural” that people would agitate against the ‘rape’ of a woman in front of her child.

Sengupta said such agitation was a “matter of pride for us as a nation”.

“But you (police) went there and opened fire indiscriminately. Four persons have died so far,” he said at a discussion on Monday in Dhaka.

Three people were killed in Kalihati when police opened fire on locals protesting against the alleged rape. A fourth victim died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Sunday.

Police have opened an investigation and withdrawn nine policemen including, Kalihati and Ghatail police station OCs.

Sengupta demanded naming the magistrate who had ordered the shooting.

“You can’t just go on and defame our democratic government by killing people this way,” the former minister said.

Sengupta was also critical of police for accusing about 900 locals in two cases of ‘attacking’ the law-enforcers.

“A Dhaka range DIG has said, ‘shoot, I’ll take responsibilities’. Were your words influenced by the fact that your OC is a tenant at that [accused] man’s house? What’s the matter,” he wondered.

Acting police chief Mokhlesur Rahman said there were ‘other reasons’ behind the clash.

Amid a public outcry over the Kalihati shooting, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) SM Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman on Sunday told policemen to “open fire, if necessary”.

He said he would “shoulder responsibility”.

Police have arrested three men accused of raping the woman in Tangail. Locals allege the prime suspect was not arrested as the Kalihati OC was a tenant at his house.