Shakir Ahmed :
The people are stunned to know that a sub-inspector of Dakkhin Khan police station Joynal Abedin allegedly shot a businessman in the capital’s Uttara area on Monday morning.
Failing to realise toll money, the police officer fired him from a close range point, family members alleged.
The bullet-hit Haji Foyez Ali, 52 is now undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). The victim, owner of the Nipu Enterprise was shot by the police officer just in front of the Munshi Market around 8:30am.
Leaving his van about a hundred metres away, SI Joynal grabbed the victim by the collar and shot him in the waist, saying: “You are involved in the politics of BNP,” his family told the journalists.
Talking to the journalists the victim said: “We were talking to each other when SI Joynal Abedin came in, grabbed him by the collar and began taking him away.” “I asked him why he was being taken away.
The SI replied that Foyez had been on the Wanted List and when I asked him about it, he refused to explain,” he said.
“The next moment, he took out his gun and shot Foyez in the waist. On hearing the gunshot, locals as well as other policemen waiting in the van rushed over. Then he, along with the other officers, left the scene,” .
When asked, Dakkhinkhan police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) said that Foyez was a BNP supporter, who along with others, tried to bring out a procession on road 10 in Uttara’s Sector 4 in support of the blockade.
“Police chased the blockade supporters and suddenly Foyez approached us and got locked in scuffle with police officials,” said OC , adding that at one stage, a bullet was “accidentally” discharged from a gun and hit Foyez in the waist.
Despite the OC’s claim that the shooting was an accident, the victim’s nephew, Md Jewel, told that the police team led by SI Joynal used to visit his uncle’s business to demand extortion money which his uncle regularly paid.
He said the SI demanded a higher amount after his uncle started construction work on his new building.
As part of the bargaining, the police official might have opened fire, Jewel said.
The victim’s wife, Rehana Foyez, denied that her husband was involved with any political party.
“In the morning, Foyez left the house with a cheque of Tk1 lakh to pay the wages of the construction workers. There is no question of him joining a procession,” Rehana said.
Rahadul Islam Nipu, Foyez’s elder son, said SI Joynal had been milling around their house for the last few days.
“We must file a complaint over the attack on my father,” Rahadul said.
Innocent people including businessmen are still being victimised of inhuman torture by the law enforcers in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
Such dishonest law enforcers in the name of tackling blockaders and hartal pickets are harassing and torturing many innocent people one after another.
The incident of torture in the hand of law enforcement is nothing new in the capital and other places in the country.
Earlier, RAB personnel in exchange of a big amount of money also killed seven innocent people including a Ward Councillor Nazrut Islam and an advocate in Narayanganj last year.
But what must be worrying that it is not the only incident when some officers did not even hesitate to commit crime against the people including killing.
We do not believe that any professional police can even think of extorting money openly and resort to firing from his own pistol in the presence of others. The police need purging.
