Train fire: Police arrest BNP leader Nabi Ullah, 7 others
The Detective Branch (DB) police have arrested eight people, including the joint convener of the BNP’s Dhaka South unit, Nabi Ullah, for their alleged involvement in the fire incident on the Benapole Express train.
Harun-or-Rashid, the additional commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), announced the arrests through a press briefing at the DMP’s media and public relations division office on Saturday.
Some Jubo Dal leaders, including Kazi Mansur and Rabiul Islam, held a virtual meeting on 4 January to discuss ways of setting fire to trains.
Apart from Nabi Ullah, other arrestees are Jubo Dal leader Kazi Mansur Alam, Iqbal Hossain, Rasel, Delwar Hakim, Salauddin, Kabir, and Hasan Ahmed. They were arrested in separate raids in the capital’s Lalbagh and Wari areas on Friday night.
Speaking at the press briefing, Harun-or-Rashid said the arrestees had a plan to set the election camps on fire and explode crude bombs to ensure that no voters turn up to the polling stations.
“Kazi Mansur has been interrogated primarily. We came to know that they distributed money at different polling stations and supplied instruments to set fire. Their first plan was to set fire to the election camps, and then to the camps adjacent to the polling stations. Crude bombs would be exploded so that no voters appear at the polling centers,” he said.
The Jubo Dal men chose the trains operating from Mymensingh to Dhaka to burn and Narsingdi as the place of occurrence. They also made another plan to set fire on the Kamalapur-Narayanganj road
Disclosing their sabotage plan in detail, the senior police officer said some Jubo Dal leaders, including Kazi Mansur and Rabiul Islam, held a virtual meeting on 4 January to discuss ways of setting fire to trains.
They chose the trains operating from Mymensingh to Dhaka to burn and Narsingdi as the place of occurrence. They also made another plan to set fire on the Kamalapur-Narayanganj road, he said, adding the plans aimed to steal the show in the local and international media and horrify the people to its peak.
ADC Harun-or-Rashid further said several teams of Jubo Dal, under the leadership of its Dhaka South unit member secretary Rabiul Islam, masterminded the arson plan and engaged some ‘notorious bombers’ for its execution.
“They carried out the fire incident on the Benapole Express train through three notorious criminals,” he said, adding the police identified the masterminds but would not reveal for the sake of the investigation. The real criminals will be arrested following the investigation.