Politicising the attacks will only let the real perpetrators off the hook
It is astonishing that Zakir Hossain Siddiqui—a vice-president of Jubo Dal who was admitted to LabAid Hospital between November 10 and 15, and has the documents to prove it—has been charged for torching a bus on November 12. This newspaper obtained those documents, yet the police did not? On what basis would they have filed the case otherwise? And what sort of an investigation did they carry out where such a crucial piece of evidence simply escaped them? Another Jubo Dal member who underwent bypass surgery less than a month before November 12, and was prescribed to be in bed rest for three months by doctors, also claimed to have been falsely accused in relation to the incident.
A previous report published by this newspaper on November 15 unearthed similar cases of BNP leaders and activists being charged over buses getting torched in the capital, despite multiple eyewitnesses confirming that they were in a completely different location at the time. In one particular case, the individual charged was present in a Dhaka court when the arson attack took place—surely it could not have been that difficult for the police to find that out.
All these glaring anomalies do not indicate that the police are going after those who are actually responsible for the attacks—rather it seems that people are being charged based on their political affiliation. In fact, as this newspaper reported yesterday, two individuals who were actually seen setting fire to a bus on a CCTV camera are apparently yet to be identified or apprehended by the police.
While we are not saying whether BNP is involved or not in this incident, we are extremely worried about how these cases are being handled and how impartially the investigations are being carried out. At the end of the day, setting buses on fire is a very serious and dangerous offence. And by politicising the attacks, the police are trivialising the matter and failing to apprehend the criminals behind them—who could potentially launch more such attacks in the future if they are let off the hook. We call on the authorities to conduct proper investigations into the attacks.
