Residents clash with police in Uttara over house help ‘killing’ rumours

Residents of a neighbourhood in Dhaka’s Uttara have clashed with police after rumours spread that a domestic help was killed at the home of Peer Habibur Rahman, the executive editor of the Bangladesh Praitidin.

Police fired warning shots and charged baton to bring the situation under control after the angry locals threw brickbats and vandalised window glasses and cars in the garage of the building after breaking the main gate on Wednesday night.

The locals gathered outside the building on rumours that the body was disposed of after the house help was killed in Peer Habibur’s flat on the fourth floor of the six-storey building on Road No. 9 in Sector-4, police said.

Peer Habibur told bdnews24.com that the domestic help, a 20-year-old woman, was kept alone in the flat in isolation after she had contracted COVID-19.

She began shouting for help, drawing the attention of the public and neighbours in the afternoon, according to the journalist. Witnesses said the young woman also dropped a flower tub from the building.

Peer Habibur Rahman

Later, the police came and called Peer Habibur’s wife. The domestic help asserted that she had not been tortured but demanded to return home, Peer Habibur said. The person through whom she was employed came afterwards and took her home in the presence of police, Peer Habibur said.

However, no one of the locals saw the domestic help leave the home, which created confusion and the rumours spread. At one stage, the locals demanded to inspect the flat in the presence of police, but the locked door fuelled the rumours further.

As a handful of policemen failed to control the angry locals, reinforcements arrived and brought the situation under control, said Khandaker Rezaul Hasan, the assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

He also said they were bringing the domestic help to show the locals that she was alive.

The police have detained several people over the vandalism.

Most of the vandals were residents of a nearby slum, Rezaul said.