Mayhem in B’baria: Blame game at full throttle

A week after the Brahmanbaria mayhem, Hefajat-e-Islam, the ruling Awami League and the BNP are trading blame for the widespread violence and damages in the town.

There are signs of destruction in many areas of the town. At least two dozen government and non-government installations, including temple, music academy, land office, district council office, municipality office, police outpost and houses of Awami League leaders, were destroyed during the March 26-28 mayhem.

Hefajat, who had called the protest programme and enforced a hartal for March 27 over police actions on demonstrations and death of their supporters, now claims that a "third party" carried out the violence to take advantage of the situation.

The AL, however, is pointing finger at its rival group in Bramanbaria and also at the BNP-Jamaat while the BNP says the violence took place due to the "rivalry between two factions of the ruling party".

However, intelligence agency officials, who visited the district after the mayhem, said Hefajat started the violence and it was mainly responsible. But a rebel AL group, the BNP and its affiliated bodies, and Jamaat-Shibir also took part in the violence for their interests.

The three-day violence left nine people dead in Brahmanbaria. Of them, three were madrasa students and supporters of Hefajat and the rest were common people, including mason, rickshaw-puller and fisherman, according to the officials.

Speaking to The Daily Star yesterday on condition of anonymity, a top official of an intelligence agency said Hefajat is mainly responsible for the mayhem in Brahmanbaria.

"On March 26, leaders and activists of Hefajat carried out the violence protesting the Dhaka incident [police action on a Hefajat demonstration]," he said.

During the violence on the second and third day [March 27, 28], Hefajat was accompanied by AL rebels, BNP and Jamaat, the official added.

He said supporters of AL rebel municipality mayor candidate Mahmudul Haque Bhuiyan mainly targeted the houses of different ruling party leaders, who are close to the local AL lawmaker, as he sought revenge, added the official.

Mahmudul lost the February 28 Brahmanbaria municipality polls.

Contacted, Maulana Sajedur Rahman, president of Brahmanbaria district Hefajat, claimed that they were not involved in any kind of violence.

"We staged a peaceful protest, but supporters of Awami League and the local MP attacked us," he said.

Sajedur demanded a fair and an impartial probe into the violence.

Law enforcers said they have already started identifying the perpetrators of the violence by recording statements of witnesses and analysing video footage. They have launched drives to arrest those responsible.

Twenty cases have so far been filed with different police stations in the district over the mayhem.

Police said they have identified an attacker, Saiful Islam, a Shibir leader from the district. They claimed that Saiful played a major role in the attack on a Highway Police Station in Sarail and torching of an armored personnel carrier.

Sources said around 30 people, including Saiful, have been arrested so far in this connection.

RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, lawmaker from Brahmanbaria-3, said the BNP and its allies had issued a joint statement saying that they would take to the streets as allies of Hefajat on the hartal day which proved that they were involved in the violence.

Mahmudul, the AL's rebel mayoral candidate, was involved in carrying out the violence, he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Muktadir, also the district AL president, said Mahmudul and his supporters might be frustrated that they lost the mayoral election. The MP said Mahmudul's men are not "politically conscious" and they see everything from a personal point of view.

Mahmudul, however, said the district AL failed to stop the violence even though the party has been in power for a long time. He told this newspaper that allegations were being brought against him to avert the responsibility of that failure.

He further claimed that the situation in Brahmanbaria heated up after a procession, led by lawmaker Muktadir, attacked madrasa students.

Law enforcers said the BNP and its affiliated bodies joined Hefajat on the second day of protest to carry out violence. A number of BNP leaders were seen in CCTV footage attending processions with sticks.

Zahirul Haque Khokon, former general secretary of Brahmanbaria district BNP, alleged that opportunists in the AL went on the rampage in the name of Hefajat.

Earlier in 2016, there was a clash between the AL and madrasa students in the district and "they later reached an agreement and settled the issue", he said.

"But BNP and Chhatra Dal men were accused in cases filed over that incident and the same thing is happening again now," Zahirul said.

Delwar Hossain Dilip, convener of the district Swechchhasebak Dal, said their leaders and activists were not involved in the violence.

Despite repeated attempts, this newspaper could not reach district Jamaat leaders for comments.

Anwar Hossain, deputy inspector general (Chattogram Range) of police, said they were trying to identify those responsible by analysing video clips.

"We are going slowly as we want to be absolutely sure before issuing any statement and arresting anyone," he told The Daily Star yesterday.