DHAKA : Six youths, all students of Dhaka’s different educational institutions, were killed on the night of holy Shab-e-barat in Amin Bazaar area by a violent mob of local people who mistook the boys for bandits in a frenzy of wrath.
According to police and parents, the victims of miscarriage of justice are Ibrahim Khalil, 24, of Tejgaon College, Tipu,25, and Polash, 22, of Mirpur Govt Bangla College, Kanto, 24, Monir, 23, and Shams Rahim Shamam, 23, an A-level student of Mastermind School and College.
Another youth, identified as Al Amin, son of Hobi Bepari of Madaripur district, was seriously injured in the late-night fury worked up by call for resistance against robbery over hailer from nearby mosques crammed with devotees in overnight prayers.
Shamam’s cousin SM Rifat Shahriar Arnab told banglanews that Shama’s father Saifuddin M Aminur Rahim and mother Shamsi Ara Karim are both lawyers.
A tearful Arnab said, “Shamam was a meritorious student, not a robber. All the victims were my friends.”
Shamam’s parents said their son went out of home on Sunday night for Shab-e-barat prayers. “We thought he would come home in the morning after completing prayers in the mosque. But, he did not come back-- his death news came,” said the shell-shocked father of Shamam.
Ibrahim Khalil, son of Abu Taher in Kalyanpur area, was an honours first- year student of Accounting of Mirpur Bangla College.
Khalil’s uncle Abdul Barek said he had kept in contact with his nephew over cell phone till midnight.
Barek claimed the boys were killed ``in a planned way``.
The injured boy, Al Amin, who is undergoing treatment at Savar Upazila Health Complex, said he along with six friends from Mirpur and Shyamoli in the capital got down from rickshaws near Parabat Cinema Hall on Sunday night after finishing their prayers.
“We went to Kolar Char Balur Math on foot. When we were gossiping there, local people attacked and beat us black and blue suspecting us as robbers, killing my six friends on the spot,” said Amin, narrating the nightmare he narrowly survived to tell the tale of a dreadful case of mistaken identity .
Dhaka district police super Mizanur Rahman told banglanews, “Initially, it was assumed that six robbers were killed. But, now a different story is coming out. This tragic incident shows how terrible consequeance can take place if people take the law into their own hands.”
Amin Bazaar union Awami League general secretary Okil Uddin said, “A robbery was committed in the area few days ago. In fear of further robbery, villagers were keeping vigilance. As the villagers saw the youths at midnight, they suspected them as robbers and thought that they were taking preparation for committing robbery. And then they attacked them.”
Earlier, local people had told police that six robbers were beaten to death while committing robbery at the house of a businessman at Bardeshi village in Amin Bazar union.
The shocking incident of loss of lives of six students of the capital`s prominent colleges struck the traumatized feeling of people when their memory is still haunted by a terrible tragedy of 44 deaths of schoolboys in Mirsarai of Chittagong as a truck carrying them was driven into a ditch.
The killings sparked off strong protests as thousands of inhabitants of Mirpur barricaded Darus Salam road in the city in the afternoon.
Later in the day, a robbery case was filed against 15/20 students, including the six dead and one injured, dubbing them as dacoits. A local sand trader named A Malek filed the case as plaintiff. On the other hand, police registered a murder case against 6 hundred persons of the locality in connection with the carnage. In this case also the slain students couldn`t get rid of the stigma of banditry as they were again mentioned here as `dacoits`.
BDST: 1430 HRS, JULY 18, 2011
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