Six arrested with links to Paltan violence

Police have arrested six people with alleged ties to vandalism and arson attacks on law-enforcement agencies’ vehicles in Naya Paltan.

All of them are linked to Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the opposition BNP, police said on Tuesday.

A helmeted man seen on a police car with his arms stretched in a show of defiance during violent clashes on Nov 14 was among the arrestees. The picture of the young man trended on the social media.

Police identified him as Md HK Hossain Ali, an adherent to BNP leader Mirza Abbas.

Hossain, a resident of Shahjahanpur Railway Colony, was vying for the post of the president of Chhatra Dal’s ward No. 11 unit, police said.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi earlier showed the photos of

Hossain wearing a helmet and claimed Bangladesh Chhatra League activists launched the attack in a bid to mar the BNP’s image.

“It is proved by the media that these people are leaders of Chhatra League, Juba League’s Dhaka metropolitan units. They set fire to the vehicles with police protection,” he said.

Rizvi and Standing Committee Member Abbas are among around 200 people accused in three cases started over the clashes that left three police vehicles vandalised and torched and scores, including over 20 policemen, injured during the sale of the party’s nomination forms.

The others accused included Abbas’ wife and Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal chief Afroza Abbas, BNP Vice-Chairman Akhtaruzzaman, its Jatrabarhi unit chief Nabiullah Nabi and Kafil Uddin, a member of the BNP chief’s Advisory Council.

Central Executive Committee Member Nipun Roy Chowdhury was among the 63 arrested until Sunday.

Monirul Islam, the chief of police’s Counterterrorism and Transnational Crimes or CTTC unit, said photos of the five others arrested along with Hossain had also been seen in the media.

They are JCD’s Shajahanpur unit General Secretary Sohag Bhuiyan, central committee member Abbas Ali, Dhaka Metropolitan North unit General Secretary Ashraful Islam Robin, Jagannath University unit Joint Secretary Zakir Hossain Ujjal, and Government Titumir College unit Vice-President Mahbubul Alam.

Their families claimed they were arrested some days ago but Monirul denied the claim, saying they were arrested from the capital’s Sutrapur area on Monday afternoon.

“Hossain Ali was jumping on the car wearing a black shirt. Robin was the first to hit the car,” the police officer said.

He said the arrested people admitted to launching the attack to provoke police. “But police did not charge baton on that day,” he claimed.

Nipun Roy and six others were arrested in the same case earlier, he said.

“Only those who committed criminal offences have been arrested. No-one has been arrested on political intentions,” he added.