The four-year-old child who was with the saboteurs who blasted cocktails on Dhaka court premises was also brought to the human chain in front of Press Club
On November 28, four-year-old Nurjahan Akter Nuri came to the National Press Club in Dhaka along with her elder sister Aklima to attend a human chain program. The human chain was formed demanding the immediate release of prisoners jailed for their direct involvement in various arson attacks and sabotage activities.
Aklima, a seven-year-old child, can hardly pronounce the word ‘Manob Bandhan’ (human chain), let alone understand what it means. The event unveiled farcical, intentional, and purposeful kids like Aklima and Nuri as shields!
Hafsa Akter Putul, the mother of the two siblings, was arrested by the police with evidence of direct involvement in a sabotage case.
Their father Abdul Hamid Bhuiyan (38) was also involved in the sabotage act and has been absconding since the incident. Actively involved in BNP politics as a member of Wari Thana Juba Dal, he is already accused in various sabotage cases.
The BNP organized the human chain that used innocent children to press the demand, as the term ‘relatives of political prisoners’ was used in the banner as the organizer.
But the backstory unveils a tragic story of using the children as a tool of violent act and later using their innocence for propagating media coverage.
The Backstory
Earlier on November 20, unidentified miscreants detonated a series of cocktails on Dhaka Session Judge Court premises intending to endanger the lives of lawyers and litigants who came to the court. Due to the cocktail blasts, the layers and the litigants present at the court premises were frightened, the security of the court was threatened and the judicial proceedings were disrupted.
On the same day, Sub-Inspector (SI) Muhammad Kamrul Hossain filed a sabotage case against unknown persons over the incident with Kotwali police station in the capital.
Later, the police started investigating the incident, collecting CCTV footage of the incident that took place at 3:53 pm.
CCTV footage shows a burqa-clad woman and a man throwing cocktail-like objects from the fourth floor of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court. A small child was also with them at that time.
This child is the younger sister Nurjahan Akhter Nuri (4) who was present at the human chain organized in front of the Press Club.
Hafsa Akter Putul is the daughter of Muslim Matubbar hailed from Fultala village under Srinagar police station in Munshiganj. Her husband is Abdul Hamid Bhuiyan and her mother Halima Khatun.
Her husband’s address is 81 Yogi Nagar Road under Wari thana in Dhaka and their present address is 45/1/F, Satata Housing, Glass Factory Street, Shyampur.
Abdul Hamid hailed from Fultala village under Srinagar thana in Munshiganj. They lived in a rented house in Satata Housing area in Shyampur.
Investigation Unveiled
During the investigation of the case, the video footage of 50 to 60 CCTV cameras adjacent to the crime scene was reviewed. With the help of information technology and based on information provided by reliable sources, the perpetrator of the cocktail blast on the court premises, Hafsa Akter Putul, was identified.
Later, on November 26, police successfully detected her location and arrested her conducting a raid in the Glass Factory area under Shyampur police station in the capital. Police seized a motorcycle and a vanity bag from her possessions which were used during the cocktail blast.
After the arrest, Putul was remanded for three days and interrogated by the police. On November 30, she was produced before the court after the remand where she gave a confessional statement.
The Confession
In her written statement, Putul said after learning that her brother-in-law Rahman would be brought to court in another case, she along with her husband Abdul Hamid and their younger daughter Nurjahan left their present residence on a motorcycle (Registration No: Dhaka Metro H18-0508) to go to the court on November 20. They first went to Dhaka National Medical College Hospital to keep their motorcycle. They stayed at the hospital for 15/20 minutes and then entered the Sessions Judge’s Court through Gate No-1 of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court.
At first, they stayed for some time on the 2nd floor of the Sessions Judge’s Court and then went up to the 4th floor. At one point, Abdul Hamid and his wife took out the crude bombs from the vanity bag and hurled those downwards into the court premises, which immediately caused a loud explosion. Then Abdul Hamid, Putul and their daughter Nuri went back to National Medical College through Dhaka Bar building on foot and fled the scene by their motorcycle.
Analysis of the incident shows that Hafsa Akter’s accomplice is her husband Abdul Hamid. They were actively involved in the cocktail explosion on the court premises on that day.
Tracks of Violence
According to police sources, Abdul Hamid is already accused in 10 cases of involvement in sabotage activities in different parts of the country.
The list of the cases filed against him includes the following ones.
- FIR No-8/362, Wari police station, Date- November 6, 2018, Time -21.10pm; Section- 15(3)/25-D Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-24/351, Wari police station, Date-October 28, 2018, Time 22.05pm, Section- 15(3)/25-D, Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-19/346, Wari police station, Date-October 23, 2018, Time-20.30pm Section-15(3)/25-D Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-12/339, Wari police station, Date-October 11, 2018, Time-23.15pm, Section- 15(3)/25-D, Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-1/328, Wari police station, Date- October 1, 2018, Time 00.05am, Section- 15(3)/25-D Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-39/313, Wari police station, Date-September 20, 2018, Time-20.45pm, Section-15(3)/25-D, Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-37/311, Wari police station, Date- September 19, 2018, Time 22.25pm, Section- 15(3)/25-D, Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-34/308, Wari police station, Date-September 17, 2018, Time-20.30pm, Section-15(3)/25-D, Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-31/305, Wari police station, Date-September 15, 2018, Time-20.25pm, Section- 15(3)/25-D, Special Powers Act of 1974.
- FIR No-24/298, Wari police station, Date-September 12, 2018, Time 19.35pm, Section-15(3)/25-D, Special Powers Act of 1974.
In conclusion, it can be said that after orchestrating systematic acts of sabotage on the streets in an attempt to create panic among the people of the country, miscreants of BNP have now resorted to sabotaging the judicial courts, the last refuge of the people to get justice. As an orchestration of BNP’s anti-people stance, Abdul Hamid and his wife Hafsa Akter threw cocktails on the court premises in an attempt to create fear and panic among the justice-seekers, which is legally an act of terrorism.
But, investigating the incident, the police bravely identified them and arrested Hafsa Akter, although her husband is still absconding. Now, judicial action has been initiated against her which is legally valid.
But another hideous form of their inferior mentality can be seen in the human chain formed in front of the press club. Activists of BNP presented innocent children in front of the media only to serve their vested interest. They created a farce by fabricating false stories to gain interest. This use of young children for political gain is undoubtedly a vile and conceited attempt in the name of politics.
