Our Feni Correspondent :
The district Awami League (AL) General Secretary Nizam Uddin Hazari MP yesterday alleged that the expelled party leader Joynal Hazari was involved with the killing of Fulgazi Upazila Chairman Ekramul Haq Ekram.
He made the allegation while addressing a press conference at a city restaurant on Thursday afternoon. The press meet was organised to clear Nizam’s position over the incident.
Nizam Uddin Hazari MP said, “Joynal might have been involved in the brutal killing.”
He also demanded that Joynal should be placed on police remand for his link with the murder. “The identities of the main perpetrators can be known if Joynal Hazari is remanded,” he added.
Following media reports that Ekramul might have been killed due to his enmity with Nizam, the lawmaker of Feni-2 constituency said: “The media reports are baseless.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the BNP also alleged that Ekramul was killed due to intra-party conflict and Nizam might have involvement with the murder.
Ekramul, also the president of the Fulgazi Upazila AL, was shot and burnt to death in his car by miscreants in the district town on Tuesday morning. Three others including a media person were also injured in the incident.
Citing a report published in the daily Hazarika Protidin, Nizam Uddin Hazari said, the Feni-based newspaper owned by Joynal Hazari, said that killing or disappearance would take place in Feni town within short time.
The report was published on May 19, a day before Ekramul’s murder.
The reports also said that three AL leaders including Ekramul might be the victims, claimed Nizam.
When contacted after the allegation, Joynal Hazari rejected the allegation outright and blamed Nizam and his supporters for the killing.
“Nizam Uddin Hazari is making irrelevant remarks over the killing as he has started to lose his control in the area,” he added.
When Hazaris are blaming each other, police are yet to find any clue to the killing of Ekramul. Police have so far been detained at least 23 people only for interrogation in connection with the killing.
Local BNP leader Mahtab Uddin Chowdhury was named as the prime suspect in the case filed by Ekram’s family.
Mahtab had contested in the March upazila polls from Fulgazi but lost to Ekram.
Ekram’s brother Ziaul Haq Selim said he did not even know what was in the case against Mahtab and 35 other unnamed people. “My younger brother filed the case. And it was nothing but a formality. We don’t know whose name was mentioned in it.”
Contacted, his younger brother Rezaul Haq said Mahtab was named as per the decision of the district AL. “It was not our decision.”
Ekramul was once a close aide of Nizam. But he became the lawmaker’s archrival when he sought to run in the January 5 national election from Feni-1, which is next to Feni-2 from where Nizam got elected.
Ekram had to quit the polls race in the face of pressure from Nizam, locals and district AL leaders say.
The conflict between the two centred mainly on controlling tenders of various development projects in the district and extortion from different sectors.
Meanwhile, a daylong hartal at the call of local unit of AL was observed in Fulgazi upazila of the district on Thursday protesting the killing of its chairman and Awami League Leader Ekramul Haque. A tense situation was prevailing in the area.
The hartal was observed peacefully.
