Dhaka: On November 18, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested four people directly involved in the burning of a bus of Basumti Paribahan in Kalshi area of Mirpur in the capital. These are Al Mohammad Chan (27), Md. Sagar (25), Md. Al Amin alias Rubel (29) and Md. Khorshed Alam (34).
According to RAB, he paid Tk 10,000 for each person who wanted to set fire to the bus, but he paid Tk 7,000 to Sagar and Al Amin. Besides, they set fire to the bus in the hope of party promotion.
On Monday night, a team of RAB-4 raided Mirpur area of the capital and arrested them.
Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of the legal and media wing of the force, gave this information at a press conference organized at RAB’s media center in Karwan Bazar at noon on Tuesday (November 21).
He said, the arrested are workers of an opposition political party. Arrested Al Mohammad Chan under the guidance of their party leaders planned to set fire to buses in the surrounding areas of Mirpur and Pallabir.
Later on the evening of November 18, Chan, his accomplice Sagar and Al Amin alias Rubel observed Mirpur-11, Taltala Navana, Kalshi Road and Ceramic Road areas at convenient places till 9:30 p.m. to set vehicles on fire at convenient times.
Commander Moin said Chan took 250 ml of petrol from his friend’s motorcycle and filled it in a bottle of Tiger energy drink to set fire to the bus and gave it to Al Amin that evening. Later on the same day, the arrested again monitored the Kalshi road to set fire to the bus around 11 pm.
He said that at that time, Sagar and Al Amin went to the bus on the orders of the arresting officer as a Basmati Paribahan bus parked next to the mosque on Kalshi road was convenient. Al Amin opened the middle window of the bus, poured petrol, set it on fire with a matchstick and immediately fled the scene with Sagar.
This RAB officer said that during the incident, Chan was standing on the island of the road and gave instructions and observed. In this incident, no one else can take pictures and videos and send them to the local top leaders to take credit, therefore, as soon as the bus was set on fire, Aarti Chan asked Khorshed to take videos from the scene and send them to him immediately.
He then sent the video containing the arrest to the party’s top leaders via WhatsApp. For this job, he paid 10,000 taka per person, but he paid 7,000 taka to Sagar and Al Amin.
Basically, to increase their acceptance by the party and to reciprocate their trust in the party, they recorded videos of these acts of sabotage and violence and sent them to the top leaders.
Commander Moin said, these videos of sabotage are also shared in different groups through social media and their like-minded followers are encouraged to create sabotage. Later, the local police arrested Chan and again directed him to burn the car at the same convenient location on November 21 evening.
Those arrested participated in a mass meeting of an opposition party in Paltan of the capital on October 28. Later, they were also involved in vandalism and violence including vandalism and arson of various vehicles including public transport, private transport, government transport in different parts of Dhaka including Paltan area.
The RAB official said that legal action against the arrested is under process.
Bangladesh Time: 1515 hours, November 21, 2023
MMI/SIA
