Savar upazila, municipality Jubo League units dissolved

Jubo League, the youth wing of the ruling Awami League, on Monday dissolved its Savar municipality and upazila unit committees following the deadly collapse of a building owned by a Jubo League leader.

Sohel Rana, owner of the nine-story building who was known as the Savar municipality unit senior joint convener of Jubo League until the dissolution of the committee, went into hiding after the collapse.

The government and the ruling party, however, had been denying that he was in the Jubo League committee.

A day after the disaster that claimed at least 381 lives, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her parliament address said she had collected the list of the committee in which she did not find the name of Rana just to spark an outcry on the streets and in the media.

The move to dissolve the Jubo League committee follows a series of media reports showing his position in the Jubo League and his relation with the local AL lawmaker, Murad Jong.

Meanwhile, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Rana from Jessore on Sunday and he was placed on a 15-day remand in two cases over the collapse.

He is blamed for allowing the garment owners to operate their factories housed in the building even a cracks development a day before the disaster.

Jubo League Chairman Omar Faruk Chowdhury said the decision had been taken to remove confusion over the involvement of Sohel Rana, owner of a collapsed building, in the committees.

Rana claimed to be a senior joint convener of Savar town unit of Jubo League for many years.

“There is no such post (senior joint convener) in any level and in any committee,” claimed Harunur Rashid, Jubo League general secretary.

Rana used this identity for his personal gain, he told The Daily Star.

The central command will not take any responsibility for the banners and posters printed by Rana, said the Jubo League leader.

Rana Plaza, a nine-storey building housing five garment factories, a branch of Brac Bank and a shopping complex, collapsed on Wednesday, killing at least 381 and trapping several thousand people inside it.

Meanwhile, Jubo League suspended Narayanganj district unit publicity and publication secretary Zahirul Islam Parvez alias Kangaroo Pervez temporarily as he showed pistol in a protest rally of Sangskritik Jote in the town on Sunday. The Jote organised the rally at the Shaheed Minar protesting the attack on one of its member by Kangaroo Pervez.

Source: The Daily Star