Dhaka: The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Monday announced that it has constituted an investigation team to probe the recent murder of a scrap trader in Old Dhaka after allegations of involvement of party leaders and workers in the gruesome act.
The party claimed that the killing could be “politically exploited” to destabilise the upcoming election atmosphere, local media reported.
Addressing a press conference at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office, the party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that the murder is a deliberate attempt to “create unrest” in the country and to pursue evil political agendas.
“There are reasons to suspect that this murder is being used for political gain and that such an incident is being used as an excuse at the instigation of certain quarters to disrupt the atmosphere of the upcoming national elections,”
Bangladeshi media outlet UNB quoted the BNP leader as saying.
“To dig out the facts behind this brutal murder, we have decided to form an investigation and fact-finding committee comprising appropriate persons, who will reveal the actual facts and make them public,” he added.
The remarks came after the brutal murder of 43-year-old scrap trader Lal Chand Sohag which unfolded on July 9 in front of Sir Salimullah Medical College Mitford Hospital in Dhaka.
The accused, Mahmudul Hasan Mohin, leader of the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal (Youth Wing of BNP) and four-five others attacked Sohag, hitting him with stones and beating him mercilessly after stripping him naked causing severe injuries to his head and other parts of the body.
Sohag, the only breadwinner of the family, died on the spot and the gruesome video of his killing went viral on social media.
For the past few months, the accused had been demanding a large sum of extortion money from Sohag every month. There are also allegations against Mohin of extorting money from vendors on the footpath near Mitford Hospital and from chemical traders.
The Bangladesh’s Awami League party had also strongly condemned the “grotesque and barbaric murder” at the hands of a group of Jubo Dal and Chhatra Dal (student wing of BNP) activists stating that the horrific footage has shocked the nation.
“We seriously doubt whether the Yunus regime will conduct a fair investigation into Sohag’s murder. In fact, before the video went viral on social media, the government was actively trying to cover up the crime. Only after the viral video forced public outrage did officials take token action. We firmly believe that this occupying regime is incapable of ensuring rule of law or justice — they are embedded within a culture of impunity and constitutional violation, supported by extremist and anti-people forces,” read a statement issued by the Awami League.
Since the Yunus-led interim government took power in Bangladesh in August 2024, there have been numerous unprovoked and violent attacks against journalists, police officers, minorities and those connected with the Awami League party.
There are allegations of killings, arbitrary imprisonment on false criminal charges, particularly of journalists, unchecked mob violence, and incitement of religious violence, such as attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus and the destruction of Hindu temples. No steps have yet been taken in Bangladesh to hold the perpetrators of these allegations to account.
(IANS)
