Those who helped cops now being 'harassed'

Police allegedly have kept three people, two of whom helped the constables injured in Ashulia checkpoint attack last week, in their custody for several days "under the pretext" of questioning.

Mintu, Saikat and Faruq were picked up by the police following the November 4 attack and weren't released as of yesterday afternoon, said their families and colleagues.

The law enforcers have not yet said if the three were detained on suspicion, they alleged.

All three live within about 100 yards of the crime scene opposite Nandan Park at Baroipara where two motorbike-riding criminals hacked constable Mukul Hossain to death and critically injured another constable Nur-e-Alam.

Mintu and Saikat are siblings and run a restaurant inside which Mukul had run and collapsed after being hacked. Saikat then took him on a rickshaw-van to nearby Fatema Clinic where the constable was declared dead.

Faruq, a local transport worker, helped take Nur-e-Alam to the hospital, according to witnesses.

Police picked up Saikat on Thursday afternoon from in front of Nandan Park around 2:30pm, said his wife Hafiza.

Police had called him there from home, she said.

Hafiza went to Ashulia Police Station a couple of times after that but was told on each occasion that they would release him soon.

"But it has been six days and he is yet to return home," she said yesterday.

At the time of the attack, only Saikat was at the restaurant as his elder brother Mintu had gone to their ancestral home in Phulbaria of Mymensingh to see his ailing mother several days earlier.

Police detained him from there on Friday, said Hafiza.

That Saikat had indeed helped take the injured policeman to the clinic was confirmed by Shamsul Alam, who runs a restaurant adjacent to Saikat and Mintu's.

Kanak Das, who works at a BRTC ticket counter in front of Nandan Park, said he and Faruq were among those who put Nur on a rickshaw-van and took him to Fatema Clinic after the severely injured policeman ran to the counter. The constable survived the attack.

However, cops picked up Faruq on Wednesday night saying they wanted to quiz him, he said.

"Police can pick him up for interrogation. Why would they keep him in custody this long if he's not guilty?" Kanak told The Daily Star yesterday.

The staffs of Fatema Clinic said the two constables were taken to the hospital by some locals indeed. They, however, didn't know the names of those people.

Contacted, Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) Dipak Chandra Saha of Ashulia Police Station said they were quizzing several people whom they thought to be witnesses of the attack.

"But they are not arrested," he said, without giving the specifics or mentioning any name.

When asked whether anyone named Saikat was in their custody, he replied in the negative.

On the progress of the probe, Dipak, also the investigation officer of the case, said he could not divulge any information before completing the investigation.

The police were yet to make any arrest in connection with the incident, he added.

The allegations came at a time when a lack of skills and professionalism in the lower tier of the police is being blamed for the consequences of the Ashulia attack.

Despite being armed with rifles and shotguns, five constables failed to resist two assailants. Police sources said their arms were not even loaded. Rather, the bullets were kept in their pockets.

After hacking the two constables, the attackers fired two shots and left the scene without any resistance.

Three constables and a sub-inspector, who had left their posts during the attack, have been suspended for negligence of duty.