Attacked for my links to Oikyafront

Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Zafrullah Chowdhury yesterday claimed that the organisation was attacked because of his involvement with the Jatiya Oikyafront.

“I am an independent individual associated with the Oikyafront,” he told a press conference in the capital's Gonoshasthaya Kendra Hospital.

Zafrullah, a public health activist, has been one of the key figures behind the formation of the Oikyafront.

On October 26, vandals broke the windows, doors and looted office equipment of a building of Gonoshasthaya Kendra in Savar.

They also beat up and broke the right arm of Limon Hossain, a law student of Gono University, who had physical disabilities.

Limon came under national spotlight in 2011, after a Rab team shot him and later claimed that the officers mistook him for a criminal. His injured leg had to be amputated.

At yesterday's press conference, Altafunessa Maya, chairperson of the Gonoshasthaya trustee board, said it had been a decade since Zafrullah retired from the day-to-day management of the organisation.

Zafrullah said, “My activities involve attending the few yearly meetings the institution holds.”

The trustee board also claimed that a recent RAB-4 mobile court raid at their pharmaceuticals department was ill-motivated.

The mobile court fined the institution Tk 15 lakh on October 23, after finding expired reagents and drugs.

Maya said, “Everything they found to be expired was already in the discarded pile. We store them in a certain place and then dispose of them accordingly.”

Meanwhile, Sramik Nirapotta Forum in a statement yesterday condemned the attack on Gonoshasthaya Kendra, demanded proper investigation into the incident and punishment of the perpetrators.

The statement signed by its convener Hameeda Hossain also urged law enforcers to play a responsible role.

“According to newspapers and other sources, although a written complaint was submitted about the attack on Gonoshasthaya Kendra and Limon, no case had been recorded by the police station yet,” it reads.