Al Amin, the lone survivor of the mob attack that left six students dead in Bardeshi village of Aminbazar early Monday, was sent to jail yesterday in connection with a robbery case and was later released on bail.
Earlier on the day, police produced him before a court, showing him arrested in the case filed by Shahadat Enterprise manager Abdul Malek.
However, nobody else was arrested till filing of the report last night although another case was filed with Savar Police Station in connection with the killing of the six.
Home Minister Sahara Khatun after attending a conference yesterday said steps will be taken against the persons involved in the killing.
She also said government never wants the people to take the law in own hands.
Terming the incident regretful and unexpected, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker, who also attended the programme, said it would be clear after probe whether the dead were students or robbers.
Many villagers still stick to the claim that the victims were robbers. But contradicting statements from them and some evidences, however, do not tell of the youths’ criminal links.
During a visit to the village yesterday afternoon, these correspondents noticed an uneasy calm as almost all male villagers went into hiding.
According to villagers, people were alerted about invasion of robbers over loudspeakers of three mosques early Monday.
Some locals said azan is heard from the spot where the students were bludgeoned, suggesting that the youths must have heard the announcement. If they were robbers they would have left the scene at once.
They were not carrying any firearm, something unusual for any robber gang.
Although police claimed they recovered four machetes beside the bodies, Al Amin, who was also injured in the incident, said locals might have dropped the weapons.
“The recent rise in robbery incidents made us so crazy that as soon we heard ‘dacoit’, we rushed in hundreds to the spot and started beating them,” said a villager wishing anonymity.
In the last 18 days, five incidents of robbery reportedly took place there.
Also, a local graveyard, less than half a kilometre off the spot, frequently visited by several hundred people from 22 surrounding villages on Shab-e-Barat, from Sunday night to early Monday.
No gang is supposed to choose such a time for robbery.
On Monday, many villagers claimed that a group of around 14 came to the village in engine boat.
But yesterday, they gave contradictory statements about where they saw the boat anchored. They named three separate places.
Al Amin said he and his friends went to the spot on foot from Aminbazar Bridge. He also said they just wanted to smoke cannabis at Keblarchar, a hot spot for drug trade.
Bardeshi village also falls on the drugs smuggling route.
Some drug dealers might have labelled the youths as dacoits following an altercation with them, some villagers said.
-With The Daily Star input
