Faridpur town AL gen secy held

Police arrested nine people, including a ruling Awami League leader and a journalist, on Sunday night on charge of attacking the house of Faridpur AL president.

Sazzad Hossain Barkat, general secretary of Faridpur town unit AL, and his younger brother Imtiaz Hossain Rubel, president of Faridpur Press Club, are among the arrestees.

Rubel is also the editor of a local newspaper -- Dainik Bhorer Prottasha.

Other arrestees are: Mahfuzur Rahman Mamun, a councillor of Faridpur municipality, Narayan Chakraborti, president of ward-16 unit AL, and AL activists Rezaul Karim, Yeasmin Sultana Borna Mandal, Enamul Islam Jony, Amio Sarkar, and Zahid Khan.

The nine were produced before a Faridpur court yesterday. The court placed Barkat, Rubel, Mamun, and Rezaul on a five-day remand each and sent the five others to jail.

Police claimed they recovered three pistols and 10 bullets from the possession of Barkat, Rubel, and Rezaul.

Two more pistols, two shotguns, 91 more bullets, 180 cartridges, six bottles of liquor, 65 yaba tablets, Tk 29 lakh, $3,000, 98,000 Indian rupees, and five passports, were recovered from the houses of Barkat and Rubel. Besides, 1,200 sacks of government rice, each containing 50kg, were seized from the garage of their construction firm office, according to the law enforcers.

Md Alimuzzaman, superintendent of Faridpur police, yesterday shared the information with journalists at his office.

On May 16, the attack was made on the house of Faridpur AL President Subal Saha at Goalchamat in the district town.

But the reason behind the attack could not be known immediately.

Two days later, Subal filed a case against unidentified persons.

After investigation, police arrested the nine for their alleged involvement in the incident, the SP said.

Besides, three cases were lodged against Barkat, Rubel, and Rezaul under the firearms, narcotics control, and special powers acts, said Morshed Alam, officer-in-charge of Faridpur Sadar Police Station.

Contacted, Khandakar Nazmul Hasan, president of Faridpur town unit AL, said, "I have heard of the incident. We will make decisions in this regard after discussing the issue with the central party leaders."

Locals said Subal and Barkat were close to local lawmaker Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, who is considered to be one of the key persons of AL politics in the district.