DU Correspondent :
Detectives have confirmed identities of six armed men involved in the violent clashes between Dhaka College students and traders in the New Market area of the capital.
All of them are the students of Dhaka College as well as leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), Dhaka College Unit.
They are Emon Basher, Shahadat Hossain, Quayum, Sujan Sarker, Shahin Sadek Mirza and Kawser Hamid alias Shada Kawsar. Shahin is a member of the dissolved convening committee of the college Chhatra League.
Among them, Quayum, Sujan and Emon were directly involved in the killing of courier service employee Nahid Mia.
Their identities have been confirmed through analysis of different CCTV footages, statements of several witnesses, said sources of the Detective Branch (DB) of Police.
“All the six suspects were Dhaka College students. Some of them wore helmets. We’re working to arrest them,” Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Media) Faruk Hossain told the media on Monday.
The six initially identified are involved in BCL, police say, but Deputy Commissioner Farook did not disclose their names or identities.
Faruk Hossain also said that investigators trying to identify others by watching video footage.
“As students are involved in the incident, great care is being taken in the investigation so that no innocent person is punished in any way. However, no one involved in the murder of deliveryman Nahid and shopkeeper Mohammad Mursalin will be spared,” he added.
Faruk Hossain mentioned that four cases have been filed in connection with the clashes in New Market. Police are investigating two cases filed in connection with the clashes and DB police are investigating two murder cases. Apart from the murder case, the operation is also underway to nab the accused in two other cases.
Along with them, RAB and several intelligence agencies are investigating the incident.
On April 18 midnight, students of Dhaka College locked in clashes with shopkeepers and employees of New Market. The clashes continued throughout the following day (April 20). A number of helmet-wearing men were seen carrying out the harrowing attack that left two people dead and scores injured.
A young man in a helmet was seen hacking courier-service employee Nahid Mia with a machete in video footage and photographs published by the media in the New Market clashes. The assailant has finally been identified as Emon Bashar.
Emon from Khulna’s Paikgachha is a student of honours (Bangla) second year at Dhaka College and involved in Chhatra League politics on campus. He is a supporter of Dhaka College BCL leader Samad Azad Julfikar, who leads one of the BCL groups at the college, according to sources.
Emon, a residential student of the college’s International Hall.
The video footage showing Nahid getting beaten up and hacked to death went viral on social media.
Meanwhile, Police have been able to identify another person wearing a helmet involved in the clashes at New Market area on last Tuesday. His name is Shahadat Hossain. He was seen participating in the clashes and attacks on that day holding a steel-pipe. Shahadat is an activist of Dhaka College Chhatra League unit.
This residential student of Dhaka College’s North Hall is from Netrakona. He is an honours student at the economics department of Dhaka College. Shahadat is familiar as a follower of Dhaka College Chhatra League unit’s dissolved convening committee member Jasim Uddin, on the campus.
Investigators said Dhaka College students, led by three BCL factions, took part in the deadly clashes with New Market shopkeepers.
Those groups were led by BCL leaders Julfikar, Firoz Hossain, and Jashim Uddin. Of them, Jashim group was more violent than the other two.
The youths who beat up and hacked Nahid during the clashes were primarily identified and were now under police surveillance, said a police source adding that Kaiyum, a Dhaka College student, hit Nahid first. He was wearing a blue T-shirt with white stripes.
Many of those who were carrying machetes, iron rods and sticks during the clashes have also been identified. One of them is Shahin Sadek Mirza, a member of the BCL unit’s convening committee. He was carrying a machete during the clash.
BCL activist Kawsar, clad in a green T-shirt, was also carrying a machete. He is a student of Islamic history and resides at the college’s South Hostel. Another person, who was holding a hammer, has been identified as Monayem. He is a member of Dhaka City (north) Chhatra League, according to investigators.
Investigators have also identified the people who killed shopkeeper Mohammad Mursalin after analyzing pictures and videos which went viral on social media platforms including Facebook.
Besides, investigators are also trying to confirm the identities of other people who took part in the attack with locally-made weapons after analyzing CCTV footage.
Investigators said they have been carefully analyzing the video footage since the clash. The participants in the attack were kept under surveillance.
Sources said law enforcement agencies have already arrested of the attackers including Emon. But they have not officially announced their arrest due to technical reason.
The agencies do not want to reveal the names of the detainees so that their accomplices may not be able to flee. Emon also tried to flee by deactivating his Facebook ID and keeping his mobile phone switched off.
Students at the college said, Emon left the college campus soon after the identities of some college students, involved in the clashes, were reveled through media reports on Saturday.
Meanwhile, BCL activists who involved in the violent clashes in Dhaka’s New Market area trying dodge the detectives by adopting various tactics. Some of them are cutting their hair, getting bald, wearing beards and sun glasses and Punjabi.
Meanwhile, multiple sources of the students of Dhaka College have confirmed that since the incident, the law enforcement agencies have conducted several raids at the college dormitories.
Members of different units of law enforcement agencies conducted separate raids on Sunday morning and afternoon. This spread panic among the college students. As a result, many have started leaving the hall.
Besides, law enforcement agencies on Sunday took six Dhaka College BCL men into custody for interrogation in connection with the clashes between the Dhaka College students and New Market traders.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Detective Branch (DB) of the police conducted raids on Sunday into the Dhaka College dormitories.
Muhammad Anwar Mahmud, a caretaker of the South Hostel of Dhaka College, confirmed this to The New Nation.
He said, “RAB and DB conducted a raid around 5.00 pm on Sunday. They took six students named Zaheer Hasan Jewel, Jashim Uddin, Atikuzzaman Rana, Titas, Sofia, Samad Azad Julfikar and two mobile sets of Emon from his room.”
Samad Azad Julfikar is a deputy secretary of BCL Central Committee, Jashim Uddin, Atikuzzaman Rana and Zahir Hassan Jewel are BCL Dhaka College unit’s Convening Committee members, Firoz Rabbi and Titas are also BCL activists.
“The law enforcers questioned six students. They let two students go and four were still at their office,” added Mahmud.
Moreover, around 90 per cent students of Dhaka College left the hostels fearing police raid.
While visiting the college campus on Monday, this correspondent found that most of the hostel rooms were locked. Only a few students staying at the dormitories.
bdnews24.com adds: Dhaka College Acting Principal Moinul Hossain said law enforcers have not approached him for information about any student identified as a suspect.
“We’ll provide any sort of information about students law enforcement seeks from us,” he said in response to a question.
Asked if he had heard of any Dhaka College student being arrested, Moinul said: “Detective police raided the college hostel on Sunday to collect evidence. They detained one student but released him later after confiscating his mobile phone.”
On Apr 18, an argument between two food stores in New Market escalated when Chhatra League activists were called in by one side. The Chhatra League activists were beaten, went back to Dhaka College for reinforcements and attacked New Market around midnight.
Clashes between Dhaka College students and New Market shop owners and workers continued throughout the following day, injuring over 50 people.
Nahid, the deliveryman for an Elephant Road computer accessories store, was attacked and injured amid the violence. A store worker named Morsalin was wounded on the head by a thrown brickbat. The two later died in hospital.
The families of the dead have filed murder cases. Police have filed two other cases over the clashes and use of explosives.
