Mob madness goes on
Josna Khatun was taking her intellectually challenged mother Hasina Khatun to the doctor’s along with other family members yesterday morning. As they were about to get into an auto-rickshaw near the crowded Daulatpur Bazar area of Kushtia, Josna lost her mother.
After searching frantically for her for half an hour, Josna learnt that a mob had beaten up a woman accusing her of being a child kidnapper not too far away. She rushed to the spot and learnt police had taken the woman to the station.
Fortunately for Josna and Hasina, a police patrol team led by the officer-in-charge of Daulatpur Police Station was in the area and they had rescued Hasina from the mob attack. They took injured Hasina to the local health complex where she was reunited with her family.
OC Azam Khan said that while he was on patrol, he saw a group of six to seven people mercilessly beating up the elderly woman at Masterpara around 10:30am.
Azam said they could not arrest anyone from the spot but were looking for the people involved.
Mob attacks on people labelling victims “child kidnappers” continue unabated despite several directives from the government and its agencies.
Incidents have increased even after the Police Headquarters and the bridges authorities issued several warnings against the spreading of rumours about the Padma bridge authorities needing to sacrifice people at the construction site.
In the last six months, 36 people were killed by mobs. In the last five days, eight, including two women, were killed. At least 30 others were injured.
Shockingly, many of the victims were intellectually challenged.
The government yesterday again issued a strong note of warning. Perpetrators of such barbaric acts would be exposed to stern punitive actions, it said, adding that a vested quarter was spreading the rumour to hurt the innocent, reports BSS.
The government asked people to notify law enforcers, by dialling 999, if they saw someone’s activities to be suspicious.
The Police Headquarters on Sunday issued another warning in this regard.
The incidents of mob attacks became more frequent after July 18 when a young man carrying a child’s severed head in a bag was caught and beaten dead by locals in Netrakona.
In Rajshahi yesterday, police rescued five field officers of NGO Ad-din Welfare Centre, in Charghat upazila after locals attacked them labelling them “child kidnappers”. The officers had gone to Rautha village to rent office space.
According to police, the rescued were Kaium Mollah, 42, of Lalbagh in Dhaka, Rezaul Karim Ripon, 40, Kalam Mollah, 30, Hafizur Rahman, 45, Abul Hossain, 33 of Moksedpur in Gopalganj.
In Chattogram, three youths were injured after a mob beat them up on suspicion of being child kidnappers in Banshkhali upazila. The three had gone there to buy cattle for the upcoming Eid.
Joni, 31, Shohel, 32, and Hridoy Haran, 19, were being treated at the upazila health complex, said Rezaul Karim Mazumdar, OC of Banshkhali.
In Madaripur’s Dhurai union, a mob beat up an intellectually challenged woman labelling her “child kidnapper”. She was roaming in a kitchen market. When locals asked for her identity she could not respond.
The mob then tied her to a tree and beat her up.
She was kept at a local police outpost where she got first aid.
In Dhamrai of Savar, people beat a man dead, accusing him of being a child kidnapper early yesterday.
Police said the man was actually killed over an affair he was having with a married woman and that her husband was involved in the killing.
When the man went to the woman’s house around 1:00am, her family members, raised alarm, yelled “child kidnapper”, and beat him dead, said Depok Saha, officer-in-charge of Dhamrai Police Station.
Six people including the couple were arrested.
In Chattogram, parents harassed an official of the directorate of primary education at Uttar Kattali Munshipara Primary School in Pahartali of Chattogram city yesterday labeling him a “child kidnapper”.
Moinur Rahman, OC of Pahartali Police Station, said there was a rumour spreading since morning that a child would be kidnapped from the school and Tapos Pal, an inspector of the directorate, visited the school later in the day.
Seeing the unknown person, parents accused him of being a child kidnapper, the OC said.
Police and school staffers rescued him and calmed the parents.
Tapos could not be reached for comments.
PHQ ALERTS ALL UNITS
The Police Headquarters has instructed superintendents of all districts to strengthen surveillance at educational institutions, monitor social media, raise awareness, and stop spreading of rumours of child abduction.
In the order issued late Sunday, the PHQ also asked public notices to be issued in print and electronic media.
It ordered increased patrolling and surveillance at educational institutions, raising awareness among teachers, school staffers, parents and students, and installing CCTV cameras covering all areas of the institutions.
The Police Headquarters also ordered holding of meetings with public representatives, and members of the administration and civil society and community police to raise awareness. It ordered that leaflets and posters be distributed and announcements made over loudspeakers.
The Police Headquarters asked for compliance reports within three working days.
Meanwhile, the cyber security team of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit posted on Facebook several photos of people who allegedly took part in recent mob attacks. It sought information leading to their arrest.
TASLIMA MURDER
A Dhaka court yesterday placed Bachchu Miah, Shahin, and Bappi, on four-day remand each after they were produced before it in the case filed in connection with the mob attack on Taslima Begum Renu in the capital’s North Badda on Saturday.
The trio had been arrested Sunday night. Three more were held yesterday.
Zafar Hossain was arrested yesterday morning following scrutiny of amateur video clips of that brutal attack. Zafar made a confessional statement before the court and was sent to jail.
The other arrestees are Kamal Hossain and Abul Kalam Azad, according to Badda police.
Taslima Begum Renu, 40, a single-mother, was brutally beaten to death by a mob in front of North Badda Government Primary School. It was later learnt that Renu went there to get information regarding admission of her daughter to the school.
RALLY AGAINST RUMOUR
Netrakona’s Kalmakanda upazila administration yesterday took the initiative to hold anti-rumour rallies at different educational institutions.
Local police, public representatives, and government officials spoke against the spread of rumours at the rallies.
In the capital, students and teachers of Government Titumir College held a rally in front of their Mohakhali campus protesting the deaths in mob attacks.
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