Awami League MP Elias Uddin Mollah has said he will quit politics if found guilty over the Kalshi camp fire ‘accident’ that left 10 stranded Pakistanis killed.
Claiming he is very ‘dear’ to the ‘Biharis’, as stranded Pakistanis are known in Bangladesh, Mollah blamed ‘a vested quarter’ for the allegations raised against him.
He made the claim before journalists at Whip Iqbalur Rahim’s office in Parliament on Sunday.
Nine people, including women and children, were killed when a few houses were set on fire at a camp of ‘stranded Pakistanis’ in Mirpur locality on June 14 morning.
Later, another person died when a clash erupted between camp dwellers and Police.
According to police, the clash erupted because of a feud over bursting firecrackers on the night of Shab-e-Barat.
But camp dwellers blamed the local MP and said he did this to grab the camp’s land.
The BNP also put the blame squarely on Mollah and demanded an independent judicial investigation.
Trashing the allegations, the MP gave a list of his assets to the journalists. According to him, the clash was the result of a feud between two groups of ‘Biharis’ and it worsened when local Bengalis took the side of one of the groups.
Camp dwellers alleged Mollah told them to provide electricity connection to the adjacent camp. As they declined, he threatened them.
On the charges of his intention of grabbing land, the MP told the journalists the land in question was not part of the camp.
He, instead, accused the camp dwellers of encroachment and claimed they were living illegally on government property.
He also accused them of having illegal electricity connection and claimed that it was because of him that they got gas connections in the camp.
The MP blamed his opponents in the constituency for unleashing a “propaganda campaign” against him.
He informed the journalists that he had discussed the matter with the prime minister and said it was the task of the probe committee to find out and punish the guilty.
Source: bdnews24