Nusrat Tabassum, reserved-seat member of parliament (MP) and leader of the National Citizen Party (NCP), has said she will continue her work despite threats and intimidation.
“I will keep doing my work walking through fire,” she wrote in a Facebook post at 1:00 am on Thursday. She is a joint convener of the NCP and a member of its highest policymaking body, the Political Council.
NCP leaders alleged last night that a petrol bomb was thrown at Nusrat’s ancestral home in Kushtia. A fire broke out at the house in Bagowan village of Daulatpur upazila shortly after midnight.
In her Facebook post, Nusrat said a petrol bomb had been thrown at her house. She said she did not know who was responsible for the attack. However she warned that anyone who thinks they could silence her this way is mistaken.
“I will keep doing my work, walking through fire. Inquilab Zindabad,” she wrote.
At 8:50 am on Thursday, Nusrat published another Facebook post with several photographs. She said the house built by her grandfather, where they grew up, had been burned down. A baby goat had also been burnt to death.
In the post, she wrote, “They are celebrating after setting it on fire. They thought they have hurt us badly! What a bunch of bedbugs fleeing with their tails tucked. They could not intimidate us even while staying in the country. What else do they think they can achieve by doing this?”
Delwar Hossain, additional superintendent of police (Bheramara Circle) in Kushtia, told Prothom Alo that firefighters reached the scene soon after receiving the news and brought the fire under control at around 1:50 am.
By then, the fire had caused extensive damage. Five of the eight rooms in the single-storey tin-shed house were gutted. Two goats were also burnt to death.