The gruesome ‘public execution’ in Feni district of an Upozilla chairman by a gang of 20 masked “contract-killers” obstructing the passage of the victim’s vehicle at three successive points, chasing and catching up with it at the third obstruction point where the assailants shot a bullet through the victim, and then knifed and let go the wounded driver with burn injuries as they coolly sprayed petrol on the victim and the vehicle and set them on fire. No one interfered.
The victim, a two-time elected chairman of Fulgazi upozilla and president of Fulgazi upozilla unit Awami League was ambushed in front of Bilasi Cinema Hall while he was on the way to the upozilla headquarters from his Masterpara residence in town.
Two other occupants of the vehicle, the editor-publisher of a local weekly and a former Union Council chairman were also beaten, stabbed and allowed to escape from the torched vehicle. During the ambush, the assailants blasted several crude bombs to create panic. But perhaps it was not panic that kept the local public aloof as they witnessed the horrific open execution. It was more perhaps their knowledge that it was a “turf war” between rival godfather gangs.
Turf war victim
The ruling party, as usual, was quick to blame the opposition BNP for the atrocity and the murder, but circumstantial evidences and some eye-witness reports all point to a rival Awami League godfather and law-maker elected in the impugned January 5 election. At least four of the assailants who took part in the killing are said to be known to locals. Some disgusted Awami League leaders in Feni confirmed that.
One of the identified assailants is a cousin of AL lawmaker. Another is joint secretary of Fulgazi AL and a third one is a Jubo League leader of Feni municipality. The fourth is a local Awami League cadre, according to townspeople. Unidentified assailants are said to be “hired professional killers.” The victim’s family in their statement to police, though, named not the AL lawmaker but the defeated BNP contestant in upozilla polls as the suspect mastermind of the murder.
Journalists following up the case heard from Feni and Fulgazi residents that the victim was once a close aide of the MP. But he became the lawmaker’s archrival when he sought to run in the January 5 national election from Feni-1, which is next to Feni-2 from where the lawmaker got elected. The victim had to quit the polls race in the face of pressure from heavyweight MP-candidate.
Continuing conflict between the two centred mainly over controlling tenders of various development projects in the district and extortion rackets in the area. Early this month, the lawmaker got furious with the upozilla leader, who allegedly supplied to journalists documents that show the lawmaker godfather had come out of jail by producing fake papers before the High Court.
According to reports published in two dailies on May 10, the lawmaker was given 10 years’ jail sentence in an arms case in August 2000. But he came out of a Chittagong jail in December 2005 through forgery. Several top AL leaders in the town reportedly said the lawmaker blamed the upozilla chairman for the leak.
People are aghast
Acrimony between them turned so bitter over the leak that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina summoned them to Gono Bhaban for a reconciliation between them on May 17. But nothing changed.
One attacker has been identified by the locals as a restaurant worker turned a notorious AL cadre under the wings of a ward councillor. The Bilashi cinema hall area where the killing took place is said to be controlled by that ward councillor, who, according to locals, monitored the killing mission. After the namaz-e-janaza and burial of the victim in Fulgazi, locals chanted slogans against the lawmaker, openly accusing him as the mastermind behind the killing. The upozilla AL enforced a daylong hartal on May 22 protesting the brutal murder.
But the police did not look for any of the suspects named by upozilla AL or locals. Police so far detained 15 people in connection with the case and seized a private car and two motorbikes from Feni sadar, suspecting they were used in the killing. Most of the detainees are street vendors, hawkers, rickshaw pullers and hotel staff. Their families claimed they had no links to the murder. Police said they were interrogating the detainees for information to identify the people behind the killing.
This abominable incident comes on the heels of the abduction and murder of 7 persons including a panel mayor of Narayanganj-Siddhirganj City Corporation and an eminent lawyer. They went missing on April 27 and were found floating as swollen corpses in Sitalakhya river in weighted sacks, with tied hands and feet and slit abdomen. People are aghast with indignation and deeply troubled by looming spectre of gloom and doom.
Banana republic mentality
There is no security of life and property for ordinary citizens who cannot afford private bodyguards or engage security company personnel for protection of their homes and places of work. On the roads, they are equally unsafe against muggers or fake RAB or police impersonators picking them up and robbing them, if not taking their lives.
The political leaders are bickering all the time, busy inventing publicity stunts and power-game manoeuvres, right now in unsavoury competition over who can curry favour more with the Indian prime minister-elect, Modi. The banana republic mentality now being demonstrated by the ruling class in this country is abjectly contrary to the self-respect and dignity upheld by the people of this country through all the trying periods of alien domination. One wonders, when, like in the past, public fury may burst again into a mass upsurge.
Source: Weekly Holiday
There goes a saw that almost everyone knows: Crime never pays. Again, ‘a killer is always killed’ with little or no exception. We’ve been saying since long that just like the snake charmer is most likely to die by snake bites so must the so-called godfathers. The Capo de tutti capi – boss of the bosses – must not forget that the gruesome tradition he/she has created will not spare him/her in the long run. It’s only a matter of time. Let’s wait & see.