Should PM Hasina back highly controversial person?

Dear Editor:
Sheikh Hasina’s open announcement in Jatiya Sangsad in favour of Shamim Osman (whose possible complicity has been extensively reported in the media) will certainly affect the due process of law and proper investigation because prime minister is in charge of Defence and Home ministries. This is most objectionable.
The RAB officers and personnel are involved in various crimes including murders, abduction and extrajudicial killings, but it is surprising how Sheikh Hasina claims that she is working for peace for the country. She also claimed that the BNP government used to foster terrorism which is very far from truth.
It is claimed even by the leaders of Awami League that seven murders in N’ganj were backed by the Big brother of AL in N’ganj, but Sheikh Hasina declared from the Parliament that she would be with that particular Osman family. Recently, a Shibir leader was tortured severely by cutting his tendon and leg by the Chhatra League.
The grandfather of Shamim Osman et al, Osman Ali, who hailed from Daudkandi in Comilla district, came to Narayanganj in the early 1900s. Headlined “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Osman family revisited”, a report in the weekly Probe of 20 May, 2014, states that since 1935 the rise and expansion of the patriarch Osman Ali (who was a middle-man in jute trade and came to be known as “Osman Dalal”, who conferred on himself the honorific title ‘Khan Saheb’.
“The family’s good name has changed to notoriety. They are now the scourge of Narayanganj and their name invokes fear rather than respect”, the report says.  Among his five sons only two were involved in Awami League politics. The third and fourth generation of the Osman clan now “virtually rule over N’ganj. They are the terrors of the town and local people quake at the sound of their names. They are known to be involved in politics, business, extortion, violence, forceful occupation of land and property, abductions, disappearances, murder and all sorts of crime”.
“Selim Osman controls all the trade, business, import and exports of N’ganj. His brother Shamim Osman’s political power has given him this clout”.
From 1996 till 2001 election, says the weekly Probe report, Shamim had monopoly rule over N’ganj. The administration was at his at beck and call. The entire N’ganj was hostage to Shamim and his gang. In 2001 Shamim lost the election to BNP’s Giasuddin and ran away in the dark of night only to return to on December 26, 2006. When the 1/11 caretaker government took over, he ran away once again. Till 2008, Shamim Osman’s photo was hung as a most wanted criminal in the Narayanganj RAB office. He was also on the list of the No.1 criminals with the N’ganj police. Shamim was elected MP in the voter-less January 5 election.
Sheuly Haque
Sirajgonj

Source: Weekly Holiday

1 COMMENT

  1. Devoid of any character whatsoever, you can expect Hasina to do anything to stay in power, resort to any means including supporting terrorists like Shamim Osman, grandson of Osman Dalal. Why should anyone be surprised ?

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