MP Nizam Hazari behind ‘premeditated’ attack on Khaleda’s motorcade: Feni AL leader

A local Awami League leader from Feni has alleged ruling MP Nizam Uddin Hazari was behind the ‘premeditated’ attack on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s motorcade late last month.

Feni Awami League Executive Member M Azharul Haque Arju came up with several allegations against the Feni-2 MP at a news conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Tuesday. 

He said the recent attack on the BNP chief’s motorcade was ‘premeditated’ and vehicles of some media outlets were also the target of the attack.   

Nizam Uddin Hazari

Besides DBC, Channel-I, Ekattor TV and Boishakhi TV, cars of Prothom Alo and The Daily Star were also vandalised during the attack, Azharul said.

“Nizam Hazari masterminded the entire episode. Several media outlets have also reported it,” he said.   

Azharul is a former president of Bangladesh Chhatra League and Awami Juba League’s Feni district unit and former chairman of Dharmapur union council.

He also alleged MP Hazari ‘ordered his cadres’ to carry out the attack on the media vehicles to ‘avenge reports against him’.

bdnews24.com could not reach MP Hazari for comments as he is abroad now.

Khaleda Zia’s motorcade came under attack in Mohammad Ali Bazar area of Feni when the BNP chief was on her way to visit Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. 

One of the vehicles damaged in the attack.

The attackers vandalised around 30 cars in the motorcade. Some media workers were also assaulted even though they had identified themselves. 

Two buses were torched just after Khaleda’s motorcade crossed Mohipal in Feni when she was returning to Dhaka on Oct 31.

Refuting BNP leaders’ allegation that the ruling party was behind the violence, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader had claimed the BNP ‘staged the attack to draw media attention’.

Photos of Osman Gani Real, a local Chhatra League leader, were published in media reports on the Oct 28 attack.

Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul Alam Hanif played an audio tape of a phone conversation and claimed Chittagong BNP leader Shahadat Hossain is heard ordering the attack in it.

Shahadat refuted the allegation, saying the voice was of Feni Awami League leader Shahadat Hossain Shaka. 

Shaka, too, denied the allegation. He told bdnews24.com that Real and other BCL men went to the area to ‘ease traffic congestion’.

Other allegations against Hazari

In the written statement, Azhraul raised several other allegations against MP Hazari. Prominent among those is that he had a hand in the murder of Fulgazi Upzila Awami League leader Ekramul Haque Ekram.

Azharul said Nizam Hazari ‘formed a force of goons to carry out loots and irregularities’ after being elected to parliament uncontested in 2014.

He said the MP used his henchmen, police and local administration to prevent people from speaking out against his misdeeds.

“If these didn’t work, people had to lose their lives. The first victim of his vengeance was Fulgazi Upazila Parishad Chairman and Upazila Awami League President Ekramul Haque Ekram,” Azharul said.  

Ekramul was burnt to death after being shot in his car in Feni’s Academy area on May 20, 2014.

Pro-BNP Tanti Dal Convenor Mahtab Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury alias Minar Chowdhury is among 56 being tried in a case over the murder of Ekramul.

Azharul claimed several others, including Juba League leaders ‘Joynal’ and ‘Mintu’, Tanti League leader Rezaul Karim, and BCL leader ‘Ripon’, were also murdered.

He alleged he himself had been threatened and harassed several times for ‘doing politics’.

Feni Superintendent of Police Md Zahangir Alam denied the allegation that the MP was using the law enforcers to suppress his rivals.