Protesters block road
Twenty people, including six police personnel, were injured as locals clashed with law enforcers at Bhatara in the capital yesterday.
The clash ensued after the locals who were dissatisfied with ongoing police investigation into the murder of a nine-year-old girl started demonstrations around 11:00am, besieging Bhatara Police Station and blocking the portion of Pragati Sarani in front of the station.
The incident led to long tailbacks on both sides of the busy street.
The protesters burned several tyres there and threw brickbats at the police personnel when the latter rushed to the spot from nearby stations, triggering the clash.
Police fired tear tells and charged batons on the demonstrators to disperse them.
Traffic on the street resumed around 12:30pm after the situation was brought under control, said police.
The clash left 20 people, including six police personnel of Bhatara and Gulshan police stations, injured. However, no one was detained.
The body of the girl, Farjana Akter Liza, daughter of a car driver Faruk Hossain, was recovered from a pond in Saidnagar area on Tuesday, a day after she had gone missing, Nazrul Islam, sub-inspector of Bhatara Police Station, told The Daily Star.
Farjana was missing ever since she had gone to a stationary shop which was hardly 100 yards far from her home, said her father.
Even though police arrested a local youth named Mahbub Hasan Shaurav, 19, on Thursday, the protesters were unhappy as the real mystery behind the killing was still to be unfolded, reports this correspondent.
Shaurav used to stalk many girls, including Farjana, in the area, locals said.
They alleged that the victim was raped and killed by the youth but police were “dilly dallying in pressing charges against him.”
On the other hand, police were yet to confirm whether Shaurav was indeed involved in the killing, said Abu Al Bashar, sub-inspector of the police station.
He was put on a three-day remand today, said the SI yesterday.
Frustrated with the “slow” police steps taken over the matter, the locals of Bhatara under the banner of three organisations — Nagarik Manchya, Bokhate Protirodh Committee and Jela Oikya Parishad – started to gather on Pragati Sarani around 10:00am to form a human chain there.
Later, they blocked the street and besieged the police station to demand immediate arrest of all the culprits involved in the gruesome incident.
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