Military police stabbed

A man attacked a member of military police with a sharp weapon at a checkpoint of Dhaka Cantonment in the capital's Kachukhet yesterday morning.

Two army members, who were also on duty with the victim, chased the attacker for around 400 metres and captured him with the help of police and locals from a house where the man holed up for around 20 minutes, say police and witnesses.

The identity of the detainee aged between 30 and 35 could not be known immediately.

The victim was identified as Samidul Islam, 27, by his fellow members of military police. 

Samidul suffered injuries in the neck, cheek and fingers, and was under treatment at the Combined Military Hospital in the capital, said hospital sources.

In a press release yesterday, the Inter Service Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) said a member of military police sustained minor injuries as a pedestrian attacked him with a sharp weapon while on duty in the Kafrul area at 9:45am.

Other members of military police, who were on duty there, detained the suspected attacker. A probe into the incident was underway, it added.

Witnesses said a bearded man, wearing a shirt and lungi, suddenly attacked Samidul while he was talking to a rickshaw-puller.

The attacker hacked Samidul indiscriminately with a machete. It all happened in less than a minute, according the witnesses.

“Soon, two army members, who were on duty at the checkpoint, chased the attacker,” said sergeant (retd) Talukder Golam Sarwar, who along with several locals joined the chase.

After running a few yards, the attacker stopped and threatened to stab whoever came near him. He then entered a five-storey building near Uttar Kafrul High School.

He pressed the door bell of an apartment on the building's third floor. As the occupants of the house opened the door, he entered the flat.

“The man asked for a glass of water. He sought shelter, saying some people were following him,” said a resident of the flat.

One of the occupants then asked the attacker to follow him. As the attacker got out of the apartment, the occupant ran back to the flat and locked the door from inside, leaving the attacker outside.

In the meantime, members of military police and law enforcers cordoned off the building. They warned the attacker that he would be shot if he did not surrender.

The man then came down after hiding his machete under a doormat on the staircase.  

The building's owner Abdur Rashid Khan told The Daily Star that law enforcers picked up the caretaker of the house, Haroon, and a tenant of the flat on the third floor for questioning.

Kafrul police said no case was filed as of 12:15am today over the incident.

Talking to the BBC Bangla last night, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said law enforcers were interrogating the detainee to find out who ordered him to carry out the attack and also the source of their funding.

A conspiracy is going on at home and abroad to create anarchy in the country. Attacks are being carried out to prove that the country is now unstable, he said.

The IS (Islamic State), Ansarullah Bangla Team and the JMB are tied together, and if one gets to the root he will find that they are from the Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP, said Kamal.

On November 4, unidentified assailants hacked to death a police constable, Mukul Hossain, and injured another at a checkpost in Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital.

Another policeman, Ibrahim Mollah, assistant sub-inspector of Darus Salam Police Station, was stabbed to death at a checkpoint in the capital's Gabtoli area on October 22.