One killed as UP chairman shoots into crowd

A shopkeeper was killed and two more people were injured when local union parishad chairman Munir Hossain opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Loharpool area of Kamrangirchar on the outskirts of the capital Tuesday afternoon.
Witnesses said the incident took place at around 1:30pm when several hundred people of Loharpool, Ashrafabagh, Nizambagh and Matabbarbazar neighbourhoods of Kamrangirchar were staging demonstrations to press their demands, including widening of the road approaching the New Bridge over the local canal.
Hearing the news of protests, Munir, chairman of Sultanganj union parishad and a local leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, along with four local youths – Hashem, Tofazzal, Omar and Kashem – drove to Loharpool where the angry protesters ringed his car shouting slogans against him which led to an altercation between Munir and the agitated locals.
At one stage, Munir fired several rounds of gunshot from his licensed pistol at the demonstrators before speeding away. Shopkeeper Hasan Mian, 18, rickshawpuller Rezaul Karim and pedestrian Imran Hossain sustained bullets wounds and fell on the ground.
One local said he saw Omar, Hashem and Kashem firing at the crowd from inside the car.
Locals took the injured to Sir Salimillah Medical College Hospital where the on duty doctors declared Hasan dead.
Deceased Hasan Mian, son of Mohammad Siddique Mia, was an employee at a local timber store.
As the news of the killing spread, several hundred peoples of Kamrangirchar took to the streets and attacked Munir’s 28, Nijambagh residence, a three-storey building, and set his Nissan Patrol Jeep bearing registration number Dhaka-Metro-Ma-02-1790 on fire. The car was parked in the garage in front of his residence.
Large contingents of police and Rapid Action Battalion went to the scene and calmed the protesters.
Senior station officer of Lalbagh fire station, Mohammad Moniruzzaman told New Age, ‘We put out the flames in half an hour.’
Mahfuzur Rahman, who works in a shop next to Hasan’s, told New Age, ‘Hasan was declared dead by the doctor when we took him to hospital.’
The officer-in-charge of Kamrangirchar police station, Nazrul Islam told New Age at 4:30pm that the situation was under control.
Several processions were brought out in the area in the evening demanding immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of Munir and his accomplices.
No case was filed till filing of this report.
The deputy commissioner of Lalbagh Zone, Abdul Malek, told New Age, ‘Reinforcements have been despatched to the spot and the police are trying to hunt down Munir who has gone into hiding.’
Ruma Hussain, wife of Munir Hossain, also president of Kamrangirchar unit BNP, denied her husband had opened fire on the crowd.
She gave a different account of the incident.
Ruma told newsmen that local activists of ruling Awami League, led by Nadim and Solaiman, had attacked Munir after he submitted a memorandum to the government against their alleged move to grab a piece of government land behind Ashfabad High School.
‘The Awami League activists mingling with the protesters fired at my husband first and he fired in the air to scare them away,’ Ruma claimed.
She demanded a fair investigation into the incident.

Courtesy of NewAgebd