FF buried without due honour
An unidentified man buried in Dinajpur turned out to be a freedom fighter and the money spent for his burial turned out to be his freedom fighter allowance.
Deceased Abdul Latif, 67, of Jamgram in Phulbari upazila, lived with his son Mominul Islam in Nimnagar Balubari of Dinajpur.
Mominul, a rickshaw puller by profession, said his father was seriously injured in a road accident in Phulbari Bus Terminal area on September 2 when he was returning home after drawing Tk 20,000 of his allowance.
Locals took him to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital where he died on September 5, he said.
The hospital authorities forwarded necessary documents to Dinajpur Sadar Police Station the same day to find the relatives of the deceased, said Jahangir Alam, director of the hospital.
Police said after failing to have the body identified, they buried Latif at a graveyard in the town on September 7 with the help of a voluntary organisation.
Before his burial, there was no evidence to suggest that he was a freedom fighter, said Redwanur Rahim, officer-in-charge of the police station.
Meanwhile, son Mominul, who went to pull rickshaws outside Dinajpur, returned home and found his father missing.
“I learnt from Sadar police that my father was buried on September 7,” Mominul said, adding that Sub-Inspector Badal Chandra Roy returned him Tk 12,000 while hospital authorities told him that they handed Tk 17,200 over to the police.
Contacted, the SI said they had spent Tk 5,200 for his burial.
“We also published an advertisement in a local newspaper on September 6, asking people to identity the deceased but there was no response,” said Badal Kumar Mandal, another SI of the police station.
The director of the hospital said they discovered documents, which a freedom fighter needs to draw government allowance, under the sheet of Latif's bed on September 7. He claimed that the hospital sent the documents to the Dinajpur Muktijoddha Sangsad.
Siddique Guaznobi, commander of Dinajpur Muktijoddha Sangsad, however, said they did not receive any such papers.
Following a complaint filed by the son of Latif on September 19, a five-member probe committee, led by District Additional Magistrate Golam Rabbani, was formed yesterday to investigate the incident, Dinajpur Deputy Commissioner Mir Khairul Alam said.
He said the committee was asked to submit the report within three days.
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