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Two men in hats, Punjabi-pajamas, black jackets over Punjabis. They walked and stopped at the corner of five roads in the city of Kushtia. There they climbed the ladder to the deck of the sculpture under construction of Bangabandhu. He pulled a hammer out of the bag and hit the sculpture hard. Then they went down the ladder and walked slowly.
This scene was seen in a viral video. The two people who were seen smashing the under-construction sculpture of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are Abu Bakar alias Mithun (19) and Sabuj Islam alias Nahid (20), students of Jugia Paschimpara Ibn Masood (RA) Madrasa in Kushtia Sadar Upazila. Meanwhile, four people, including these two, have been arrested. The other detainees are two teachers from the Al Amin Madrasa (26) and Yusuf Ali (28).
Kushtia Police line Khulna Range DIG on Sunday afternoon. Khandaker Mohid gave details at a press conference. Citing the two arrested students, he said: “After hearing the statements of Maulana Mamunul Haque and Faizul Karim, they were inspired to do so.”
Those arrested were identified as Abu Bakar alias Mithun, son of Mridha from Shingpur Mridhapara Mirpur upazila area of Kushtia and Sabuj Islam alias Nahid, son of Shamsul Alam from Golabaria area of Philipnagar in Daulatpur upazila. Madrasa teacher Al Amin is the son of Abdur Rahman from the Dhubail area of Mirpur upazila and Yusuf Ali is the son of Azizul Mandal from the Aminpur area Diar Bamandi from the Pabna district.
Police have filed a case under the Special Powers Act of 1974 against the four arrested in connection with the vandalism of the sculpture.
The DIG said that when everyone fell asleep on Friday night, Abu Bakr and Nahid secretly left the madrasa and arrived at the Bangabandhu sculpture at the intersection of five roads through Majampur. There they climbed up the bamboo ladder, took a hammer from Nahid’s bag, and struck it on different parts of the sculpture. Then they walked back to the madrasa and fell asleep. The two have been identified and arrested after viewing CCTV footage. Two madrasa teachers have also been arrested for feeding them.
Police Superintendent SM Tanvir Arafat said that a team of policemen were on a daily patrol in the Jugia area, two kilometers from the city, on Friday night. At that moment, they saw two people in jubba, hat and turban fleeing. At that time those policemen did not care much about the matter. Police collected multiple CCTV images at a five-lane intersection in the city after news broke of the sculpture’s breaking on Saturday morning. Upon viewing the images, the police saw two people involved in destroying the sculpture. However, his appearance in this footage was very vague. Later, the police collected CCTV footage of the two fleeing the Jugia area after seeing a police vehicle. In this footage, the faces of the two can be clearly seen. Later, the police identified the two students from the madrasa by comparing images from the two places. The two students were arrested Saturday night. The two teachers were subsequently arrested for information provided by them.
Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon a protest rally was held in Vijay Ullas Chattar of the municipality to protest the vandalism of the sculpture. Awami League Deputy General Secretary and Kushtia-3 MP Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Kushtia-4 MP, Attorney Selim Altaf George, Awami League District President Alhaj Sadar Uddin Khan, General Secretary Azgar Ali, former Vice Chancellor of Islamic University Dr. Shahinur Rahman, former Treasurer. The floor was spoken by Selim Toha, Jasdar District President Golam Mohsin, Attorney for the District Bar Association President Anup Kumar Nandi, Sadar Upazila Parishad President Ataur Rahman Ata, and leaders of various social organizations and professionals.
Speakers at the rally said that fundamentalists will never be allowed to rise up in this holy land of Kushtia. Those who have tried to show their existence by breaking the Bangabandhu sculpture, will not be able to rise again in this district in the future.
Meanwhile, two journalists were injured when the BNP district office was vandalized and the business of the brother of the BNP district secretary general was vandalized in a scattered incident after the vandalism of the Bangabandhu sculpture. Injured journalist Debesh Chandra filed a case with the Kushtia Sadar Model Police Station mentioning the name of Saad Ahmed, secretary general of the dissolved district BCL committee. Early Saturday, journalists surrounded the police station demanding the arrest of Saad Ahmed at midnight.
It can be mentioned that the Kushtia municipality authorities started the construction of three Bangabandhu sculptures in front of three main roads last November by demolishing card sculptures at the intersection of five roads in the city at a cost of Tk 30 lakh. Work on a sculpture of the Bangabandhu March 7 speech under construction in the Mazampur part of the city was nearing completion. Several parts were dismantled last Friday night. The incident took place in Kushtia amid protests by various progressive organizations in response to opposition from various Islamist groups, including Hefazat-e-Islam, to the construction of the sculpture.
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