‘I will enter your bedroom, shoot you along with your wife, children,’ Jubo Dal leader says after issuing threats
Two district Jubo Dal leaders and their followers allegedly tried to take over a cable line-internet business of a Jubo League leader who is now in jail, in Rangpur. They attacked and vandalised the cable office, as well as entered the manager’s resident and threatened to shoot him dead, the businessman’s family alleged.
Following the allegation, the two Jubo Dal leaders were expelled from the organisation on Sunday night.
The expelled leaders are district Jubo Dal joint general secretary Akibul Rahman (Monu) and assistant general secretary Tamjidur Rashid (Galib).
In a letter signed last night by Jubo Dal central assistant office secretary Minhajul Islam Bhuiyan, they were expelled from all posts including their primary membership. Law-enforcement agencies were also urged to take legal action against them.
Police and sources concerned said that in Rangpur city, former metropolitan Jubo League joint convener and former councillor Harunur Rashid had been operating cable and Wi-Fi business from Kamal Kachna to the Dakshinganj cremation area through the company “Cable One Network” as a feed operator of the internet service provider Maya Cyber World. He is currently in jail in a case over to the anti-discrimination student movement.
According to the victim’s family, after the new government came to power, they were pressured to hand over their business. When they refused, on 23 February their legal feeder connection in the Kamal Kachna area of Rangpur city was disconnected in a preplanned and illegal manner. They later filed a complaint against eight people.
Last Saturday, Harunur Rashid’s wife Rebeka Harun held a press conference.
In a complaint filed with Rangpur Kotwali police station, it was stated that following the earlier incident, at around 4:00 pm on Sunday, Tamjidur Rashid and Akibul Rahman, along with 15–20 others, entered the Cable One office on Station Road in Rangpur city, assaulted manager Raihan Ahmed, and vandalised the office’s laptops and other equipment. They pressured them to appoint Tamjidur Rashid as the new feed operator.
CCTV footage obtained by Prothom Alo shows that while inside the Cable One office, Jubo Dal leader Akibul Rahman called Mahadi Hasan, manager of Maya Cyber World, on a mobile phone and began abusing him. At that time Akibul said, “What solution will you make for the line? You (Mahadi) are doing Awami League brokerage. I will go to your house and shoot you. If you don’t solve it by this afternoon, I will go to your bedroom and shoot you along with your wife and children.”
When asked about the allegation, Tamjidur Rashid claimed, “The line was mine until 2015. During the blockade that year, while I was in jail, I heard Harun took over my line. This is my right. I am not doing anything wrong or going to beat anyone. I am talking verbally within discussion.”
Regarding the allegation of attacking the business establishment, he said, “After naming Akibul and others in the press conference, maybe they went to the office yesterday. There was an argument over that.”
Kotwali police station officer-in-charge Shahjahan Ali told Prothom Alo that last night the authorities of Maya Cyber World and Cable One filed two cases naming Tamjidur Rashid and Akibul Rahman and 15–20 unidentified people. No one has been arrested so far.