Saturday | 9 November 2024 | Reg No- 06
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Saturday | 9 November 2024 | Epaper

Murders that shook people’s conscience in 2019

Published : Tuesday, 31 December, 2019 at 12:00 AM  Count : 565
As the curtain falls on the year 2019 it reminds us of some ghastly incidents that has struck the collective conscience of the nation.
Of those shocking incidents, the names Taslima Begum (Ranu), Abrar, Nusrat Jahan Rafi and Rifat will continue to ring in our ears.
Their murders were so horrific that they jolted the foundation of the notion of the civilized world.      
The year also witnessed the fire incident at a chemical warehouse in Chawkbazar area of Old Dhaka killing about 70 people and the fire at FR Tower in Dhaka's Banani killing about 19 people.
Those two fire incidents are the proof of how vulnerable our lives are even in the capital city of Dhaka.
And the recent fire incident in Keranigang Plastic Factory where 14 labourers were burnt to death also tells us that lives here are always at risk.    
Lynching of Ranu: People witnessed several lynching and mass beating incidents in the middle of the current year after a rumor was spread out on the social media that 'Child head is needed to construct the Padma Bridge and already child lifters are in search of heads of children'.
Such incidents occurred even in the remote part of the city of Dhaka. Taslima Begum ( Ranu) was one of victims of such lynching incident. On 20 July Ranu, wearing a hijab, went to Badda Government Primary School to admit her daughter.
However, Ranu had been suffering from mental disease for long time. When she reached the gate of the school a few women guardians asked her identity and took her to the headmistress's room after they found inconsistency in her words.
But by that time a rumor was spread outside of the school that a child lifter was confined in the room of the headmistress.
Just then the aggressive local people and the guardians forcefully entered the room of the headmistress and dragged her out and beat her to death.
According to police, about eight innocent people died due to such lynching incident across the country in 2019.
Abrar murder: On the night of 6 October Abrar Fahad, a second-year student of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, was beaten to death by Chhatra League men.
Later, BUET students demanding justice for Abrar Fahad vowed not to return to classes or sit for exams until the authorities met their 10 point demand.
The protests across the country demanding the justice of Abrar killing was so strong that the law enforcement agencies began to arrest the killers one after another.
All the political activities were prohibited at BUET and DB police have given a charge sheet accusing 25 people after investigating the case of Abrar killing.
Nusrat Jahan Rafi murder: Nusrat Jahan Rafi, a Madrasa Student from Feni lost her life by protesting sexual harassment in April in the current year.
Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa Principal Sirajuddoula sexually abused Rafi.
Rafi filed a case against him as a protest and later Sirajuddoula and his associates poured kerosene on her and burnt her who later died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.  
Nusrat Jahan Rafi gave her statement to the police just before her death.
Later, the court sentenced Sirajuddoula and 16 others to death.
Rifat Killing: The video of the brutal murder of Rifat in broad daylight went viral on the night of June 26 via social media.
The video showed a group of young men hacking Rifat with a sharp machete while his wife was trying to save her husband.
After the incident the main killer Nayan Bond died in a so called gunfight with police but later in a dramatic twist of the event Rifat's wife Ayesha Siddika Minni was accused of the killing.
Later she was given bail after a long investigation and police gave a charge sheet to the Barguna senior judicial Magistrate Court where Rifat's wife Minni was one of the accused raising questions about the neutrality of police.
Chawkbazar fire: On the night of February 20 when people were heading towards central Shaheed Minar to pay tribute to language martyrs just then the area of Chawkbazar of Old Dhaka went up in flames killing 70 people at a chemical warehouse.
As many as 37 fire service units tamed the inferno after struggling the whole night. They collected about 66 burned bodies and later another five died in the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.  







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