Case filed over killing of policeman during BNP-police clash

A case has been filed over the death of a policeman who was killed during clashes between police and BNP men in capital on Saturday.

Police filed the case with the capital’s Paltan police station on Sunday.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Motijheel division) deputy commissioner Hayatul Islam Khan confirmed the matter to Prothom Alo.

Details of the case could not be known immediately.

The policeman was constable Md Amirul Islam, 32. He was from Daulatpur upazila of Manikganj.

The policeman fell to the ground after being hit on his head during the police’s clashes with leaders and activists of BNP in Fakirapool’s Box Culvert area on Saturday.

He was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where on-duty physicians declared him dead.

BNP held a grand rally in the capital’s Naya Paltan on Saturday, but party leaders and activists engaged in clashes with police in Kakrail ahead of the rally, and that spread out Bijoynagr and Shantinagar areas. At one point, the rally was foiled around 3:00pm.

The BNP-police clashes spread out in at least six areas, and that left one policeman and a Juba Dal leader dead, as well as 41 members of police and 25 members of Ansar, 20 journalists injured. BNP claimed more than 1,000 party leaders and activists sustained injuries during the clashes.

Another deceased was Shamim Mia, a resident of the capital’s Mugda area.

Police said 55 vehicles including ambulances, fire service vehicles, buses and motorcycles were torched. The residence of the chief justice in Kakrail and the Central Police Hospital in Rajarbah were also come under attack; seven police boxes were set on fire and a police vehicle was torched in the Kamalapur area.

BNP called the hartal for Sunday ‘protesting the police attacks’ on its grand rally in the capital’s Naya Paltan on Saturday.