UNB, Dhaka :
Claiming that locals point their fingers at the local ruling party MP for the 10 killing at Mirpur Bihari camp, BNP on Monday renewed its demand for forming a judicial probe body to promptly identify and punish those involved in the gruesome murders.
“We visited Mirpur Bihari camp today and talked to the locals and residents of the camp. They pointed their fingers at local MP Ilias Mollah,” BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a press conference after visiting the fire-ravaged spot.
Fakhrul along with party standing committee member Rafiqul Islam Miah and some other party leaders had been at the Bihari camp around 3pm.
Later, addressing the press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office, the BNP spokesman alleged that as per the media reports and the statements of the locals, the MP with the help of ruling party men carried out the dreadful killings to grab the camp land.
He said Ilias Mollah went to the camp a few days back and threatened its dwellers of dire consequences within 48 hours as they disrespected him by rejecting his request to give illegal power connections from their line to a nearby slum.
Fakhrul also alleged that the ruling party ‘miscreants’ carried out the incident in
presence of law enforcers. “The law enforcers played a role of silent spectators.”
“Under the circumstances, we think the government should promptly bring the offenders to book after identifying them through a judicial probe. The trial of the grievous killings must be held within a short time,” the BNP leader said.
He alleged that the current illegal and unethical government is carrying out the incidents of murder one after another to divert people’s attention from its misrule, failures and corruption. Quoting locals, Fakhrul said no one from any department or agency of the government visited the camp even after three days of the incident to stand beside them and assuage their sufferings.
He demanded the government provide the family members of the victims and those got injured with necessary assistance and compensation. Mentioning that police filed six cases against several thousands unidentified people in connection with the incident, the BNP leader said the law enforcers lodged the cases against unknown people to indulge in ‘arrest trade’.
“Police illegally arrested six people of the camp. We demand the government release them immediately and withdraw the six cases filed in this connection with an ulterior motive,” he said.
Fakhrul said the heinous incidents in Narayanganj, Feni and Mirpur have exposed that the government has no control over the law and order and state machinery.
Ten people, including four women and four children, were killed in a series of clashes between two groups of stranded Pakistanis at Kurmitola Bihari camp at Kalshi in the city early Saturday. Of the 10 people, nine were burnt to death while another was shot dead during a series of clashes between the two groups over blasting crackers.
