Int’l rights watchdog says abuse of Limon ‘adds gross insult to already grievous injury’
A Jhalakathi court yesterday asked “Rab informant” Ibrahim Hawlader to appear before it on September 26 for attacking Limon Hossain and his family and threatening them with death.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Shahidul Islam issued the order after Rajapur police yesterday gave him a report against Ibrahim and his associates and sought the summons.
On the afternoon of August 20, Eid day, Limon and his family members came under attack led by Ibrahim on Saturia-Idurbari road in Rajapur upazila, Jhalakathi.
The police report came following a GD Limon’s mother Henoara Begum had filed with Rajapur police station hours after the incident.
Limon was maimed in shooting by a Rab team in March last year. Later, his leg had to be amputated from the thigh.
The Rapid Action Battalion on April 23 last year filed two cases against Limon, then 16, and seven others under the Arms Act and another for obstructing official duty, attempting to murder and injuring Rab personnel.
Police submitted charge sheets in both cases against Limon and seven others on April 24, 2011 and on July 1, 2012.
The continuous harassment of the teenager has drawn fierce criticism at home and abroad.
The National Human Rights Commission has demanded a judicial probe into the incidents surrounding the student.
Yesterday, Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, said “The ongoing abuse of Limon Hossain and his family by government elements protecting Rab adds gross insult to already grievous injury.”
“This government while in opposition and in its early days in power, declaimed Rab excesses and promised a zero-tolerance approach toward such abuses,” he said through a press release.
“These latest actions to punish a Rapid Action Battalion victim, instead of to protect him, only perpetuates Rab impunity.”
Instead of taking any action against his attackers, police filed criminal charges against Limon and failed to protect him from attacks by alleged Rab supporters, said the New York-based rights watchdog in the press statement.
On August 23, Sub-inspector Badal Fakir of Rajapur Police Station got the court’s permission to investigate the GD.
Henoara Begum in her GD said, “Ibrahim beat up Limon and as my elder son Sumon and I tried to save Limon, Ibrahim and his associates also beat us.”
Known to locals and some policemen as an extortionist, drug dealer and robber, Ibrahim is also a witness in one of the Rab cases filed against Limon.
Ibrahim had once been an informant of the elite crime buster, Colonel Faridul Alam, commanding officer of Rab-8, earlier told The Daily Star.
Ibrahim denies all the allegations. Talking to The Daily Star at his residence, he rejected outright the police findings and termed them motivated.
“Police did it by taking money as bribe as well as under pressure from a vested quarter,” he said.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Nazmul Alam, general registry officer of Jhalakathi court, told The Daily Star that if Ibrahim did not appear before the court, the court would issue an arrest warrant against him.
Ibrahim also lodged a “murder case” with Jhalakathi Senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court on August 23 against Limon’s father Tofazzal Akand, mother Henoara, elder brother Sumon and maternal uncle Siddique Hossain and six locals.
The case is still in the process of being registered with Rajapur police station.
Ibrahim in the case alleged the accused had beaten his brother-in-law Forkan to death during a brawl with him.
It is unclear how Forkan died as a postmortem report was yet to be submitted. Police have sent the body to Jhalakathi Sadar Hospital morgue, saying, “The body bore no injury marks.”
About the new murder charge, Brad Adams said it only highlighted the depths to which the Bangladeshi government will go to discredit Limon.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
