Police have charged a local BNP leader, who owns the shops at the heart of a dispute that led to the deadly clashes between Dhaka College students and shopkeepers in the New Market area.
The accused, Advocate Makbul Hossain, said he had rented the shops out to two other people named Rafiqul Islam and Shahidul Islam.
Makbul, a former president of the BNP’s New Market Unit, is among 24 people accused in the case started by Inspector Yamin Kabir of New Market Police Station. Yamin also brought charges of rioting, arson and obstructing police work against around 300 unidentified traders and shop workers and up to 700 college students.
Sub-Inspector Mehedi Hasan started a case under the Explosives Act against up to 200 unnamed people while Md Sayeed pressed murder charges against around 150 unnamed suspects over the death of his nephew, Nahid Mia, a deliveryman who was fatally injured during the clashes. In total, nearly 1,400 people have been accused in the cases.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Shuvra Chakrabarty on Thursday gave police one and a half months to investigate the cases, setting Jun 7 for the submission of the reports after admitting the charges.
Police fired tear gas at Dhaka College students during violent clashes between the students and New Market shopkeepers.
Full names and details of all the accused were not available, reports bdnews24.com.
Dewan Aminul Islam Shahin, president of New Market Traders’ Association said he saw the names of the accused in media reports and recognised only Makbul.
Business leaders, citing security camera footage, said a feud between workers at two food stores dragged Dhaka College students into it, ultimately leading to the violence as conflicting accounts of the start of the skirmishes continued to pour in.
Makbul said he had rented the two shops – Welcome and Capital Hostel – to Rafiqul and Shahidul 15 years ago. “It was their workers who clashed, but I've been accused because I'm involved with the BNP,” he said, claiming that he has not been in the New Market area for six months.
Dhaka College students wielding sticks and billhooks gather outside the institution during violent clashes with New Market store workers on Tuesday, Apr 19, 2022.
New Market Police Station chief SM Kaiyum said the 24 people named in the case are charged with inciting violence.
Shahen Shah, an additional deputy commissioner of police, said they named the accused after analysing security camera footage. “It doesn’t matter who belongs to which party. The names came out from information gathered by detectives.”
Shop workers clashed with students for nearly two and a half hours in the small hours of Tuesday before police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them. The clashes resumed in the morning, further crippling Dhaka’s slow Ramadan traffic.
On Wednesday, traffic returned to normal and a significant number of vehicles were on the road. Very few shops in the Dhanmondi Hawkers’ Market lifted shutters, flying white flags as a gesture of their readiness for parley.
The traders reached a consensus with the students in a meeting in the small hours of Thursday to reopen the shops. Police said after the meeting they were investigating allegations that “a third party” had incited the mayhem.
A shop assistant, who was seriously injured in the clashes, died in hospital on Thursday, taking the death toll from the incident to two. No charges were brought over his death until the afternoon.