Rajshahi cops break innocent man's legs

Shamim Hossain, a tea shop owner, being taken to the Rajshahi University Medical Centre yesterday from Motihar Police Station in Rajshahi where he was allegedly tortured which led to leg fractures. Photo: star

After a crude bomb went off, police rushed to the tea shop owner, 200 yards away from the scene, and asked him a few questions before taking him into detention. In custody, he was clobbered so badly that the man had the bones of both legs fractured, apprehensively beyond repair.

What did he do actually? Police do not have a good answer. They freed the small trader, Shamim Hossain, after failing to find his involvement in the blast, near Ismail Hossain Sirajee Building on the Rajshahi University campus.

Doctors at RU Medical Centre where the 55-year-old is receiving treatment said he might get crippled and never return to normal life. He will need to have rest for a long time and take expensive antibiotics, one physician told The Daily Star.

Narrating the incident, Shamim said 10-12 policemen came to his shop immediately after the blast, around 10:45am, and asked him where the bomb exploded.

"When I said it was somewhere near my shop, they picked me up and took me to Kazla police sub-station and started to slam my legs with sticks, saying 'you know the bomb throwers'. After a while, I lost consciousness. They released me at 1:00pm. When I woke up, I found myself in hospital," he said.

Police, however, denied torturing him.

Officer-in-Charge of Motihar Police Station Alamgir Hossain said Shamim was detained to learn whether he recognised the perpetrators. As he said he did not know them and police did not find his link to the blast, he was freed, the official added.

Alamgir Hossain Sujon, a leader of the RU Progressive Students Alliance, which pleaded for the release of Shamim, said it was just a case of police brutality on an innocent man, which could not be expressed in words.

He demanded punishment for the cops responsible for the torture.

Shamim, the only earning person of his eight-member household, does not know whether his shop would reopen and how the family would survive without his income.

JCD, SHIBIR STRIKES

The RU campus saw four more bomb explosions yesterday, the first day of a strike by Islami Chhatra Shibir and fifth day of an indefinite one by Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal.

Two students were arrested, and no injury was reported.

Shibir called the strike protesting the death of a leader in a “shootout” with law enforcers on February 6, while JCD's strike started Saturday following the arrest of the unit general secretary on February 5.