A court has ordered the nine individuals arrested in the case filed at Tejgaon Police Station regarding the attack, arson, and looting at the office of the English daily The Daily Star in Karwan Bazar, Dhaka, to be sent to jail. At the same time, the same court has ordered two more individuals arrested in the case over the attack on Prothom Alo to be sent to jail. A total of 11 accused from two separate cases have been sent to jail.
The court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Jamshed Alam issued this order after a hearing on Tuesday evening. State lawyers Shamsud Doha Shumon and Md Kaiyum Hossain Nayan confirmed the information.
The accused sent to jail in the case over the attack on The Daily Star are Rajshahi’s Mohammad Mainul Islam (22), Dhaka’s Zulfikar Ali Saurav (22), Mymensingh’s Md Almas Ali (29), Noakhali’s Jubayer Hossain (21), Sylhet’s Aynul Haque Kashemi (30), Noakhali’s Abdul Rahman Palash (30), Rangpur’s Md Jannatul Naim (21), Shariatpur’s Qari Muazbeen Abdur Rahman (34), and Chandpur’s Md Faisal Ahmed (24). The two accused sent to jail in the Prothom Alo incident are Yasin (39) and Md Hashem (24).
Earlier, the case’s investigating officer, Tejgaon Police Station Inspector Md Ashik Iqbal, had applied to the court, producing the accused, to keep them detained in jail. The application stated that during the investigation, these accused were arrested by conducting raids at multiple locations with the help of DB and DMP, based on interrogations of people from various levels in the area and trustworthy sources, and on specific information.
The investigation of the case is ongoing. The verification and screening process of the accused’s names and addresses is underway. In this situation, it is absolutely necessary to keep them detained in jail until the investigation is completed and their addresses are verified and screened.
During the hearing, lawyers for the defence applied for bail. The lawyer for the accused Jubayer Hossain said, “Jubayer is a journalist for Osama TV. And he was live-streaming from there. He has been arrested on suspicion of being an accused. He is innocent.”
During the hearing, the lawyer for the accused Faisal said, “Faisal works in a factory. He is a tailor by profession. Police arrested him on suspicion of being an accused in Osman Hadi’s case. He is innocent. We seek his bail.”
At this time, on behalf of the accused Zulfikar Ali, it was said while seeking bail, “He has a shop in Dholaikhal. That day he was going home via Karwan Bazar. That day he only shared a picture on Facebook. He is not involved in this incident.”
At this time, the state lawyer Shamsud Doha Shumon opposed the bail, saying, “Martyr Osman Hadi always discouraged such incidents. But currently, the opposite is happening. We are opposing bail for the accused for a fair trial in this incident.” After hearing both sides, the court rejected the bail of the accused. It also set a date for the next hearing.
The case allegations state that around 12:35am on 19 December, a group of attackers, armed with sticks and incendiary materials, entered the building chanting provocative slogans. The attackers physically assaulted Daily Star employees, looted cash and various equipment, set fire to multiple floors of the building, and damaged crucial infrastructure including the fire safety system and CCTV.
In this incident, over 200 electronic devices worth approximately Tk5 crore and Tk35 lakh in cash were looted. Preliminary estimates suggest the total damage is around Tk40 crore. During the attack, 30 staff members were rescued.
In that incident, The Daily Star’s Head of Operations, Md Mizanur Rahman, filed the case at Tejgaon Police Station on 22 December. In the case, 350 to 400 individuals have been made unknown accused.
Additionally, on that night, a case has been filed against 400 to 500 unknown individuals for the attack, vandalism, looting, and arson at Prothom Alo’s Karwan Bazar office. Yesterday, 15 individuals were sent to jail in this case.
