Jubo League leader killed in Noakhali, BNP election campaigners blamed

A local leader of the Jubo League has been killed in Noakhali’s Sadar Upazila in what police and the Awami League say was an attack by the BNP during election campaign.

Md Hanif, 24, was brought dead with wounds from a heavy object in his head and shotgun shell in different parts of his body on Tuesday afternoon, doctor Syed Mohiuddin Abdul Aziz at Noakhali General Hospital told bdnews24.com.

People from a BNP procession attacked Hanif, the general secretary of the Jobo League’s ward-9 unit at Aojbalia union, with powdered chilli, Sudharam Police Station OC Anwar Hossain said.

The attackers then hit Hanif in his head with a brick before shooting at him with a shotgun, the OC added.

The BNP people took out the procession after a meeting at Nuru Patwary Haat around 4:30pm, according to Anwar.

Two other people were injured in the incident. They are Md Liton, 22, Nurul Islam, 25.

This is the first death after clashes started occurring on Monday in different places across Bangladesh when the candidates were allocated symbols.

The BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami people had earlier attacked the leaders and activists of the Awami League in the area several times in the past, Sadar Upazila Awami League President Shihab Uddin Shaheen told bdnews24.com.

They killed Hanif after a failed assassination bid on Eojbalia union council Chairman Abdur Jahed, he alleged.

Noakhali district BNP General Secretary Abdur Rahman told bdnews24.com that they did not organise any programme on Tuesday.

“They are not allowing us to campaign, and now they are passing the buck after their internal problem,” he added.

The Awami League candidate for Noakhali-4, Mohammed Ekramul Karim Chowdhury MP, told a press conference that the BNP carried out the attack to spread panic and destabilise the election atmosphere.

He demanded quick punishment of the attackers.

BNP candidate Mohammad Shahjahan, a vice-chairman of the central committee, was not immediately available for comment.