Key accused confesses to his involvement, says RAB
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested three people over the attack on the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Ghoraghat in Dinajpur.
The key accused, 35-year-old Asadul Haque confessed his and two others’ involvement in the gruesome attack on UNO Wahida Khanam and her father, RAB-13 chief Reza Ahmed Ferdous told the media in Rangpur on Friday.
The two other suspects arrested in the case filed by the UNO’s family are
Md Nabirul Islam, 35, and Santu Kumar Biswas, 28.
UNO Wahida, who sustained severe injuries in the head, was in a stable condition but still not out of danger following a surgery in Dhaka on Thursday, said doctors.
The public servant and her father were seriously injured when assailants broke into her official residence early on Thursday.
Wahida's brother Farid Hossain filed a case with the local Ghoraghat police station in the early hours of Friday.
“We raided several locations at Hakimpur and Ghoraghat upazilas and other places in Dinajpur between September 3 and September 4 to nab the perpetrators,” RAB-13 chief Reza said at the media call in Ranpur on Friday.
Asadul was held from Hakimpur earlier in the day during a joint raid with Dinajpur police, according to him.
“Upon information gleaned from Asadul, we arrested Nabriul and Santu from Ghoraghat and brought them to the RAB-13 headquarters in Rangpur for initial interrogation,” said the senior RAB officer.
They also recovered the hammer used by the assailants during the attack on the UNO’s home, added Reza.
He, however, said details, like the motive behind the attack, can be confirmed after further interrogation following a remand order from the court.
Earlier, law enforcement agencies had detained six individuals, including and a local leader of Awami Jubo League.
Among them, three were released later as RAB could not find their involvement in the attack, Reza said.
They were Jahangir Alam, 40, convener of Ghoraghat Upazila unit Jubo League, Masud Rana, 40, president of Singra union unit Jubo League, Nahid Hossain Polash, the night guard at UNO’s official residence.
According to local sources, the attackers broke into Wahida's house through a window and started attacking Wahida.
Her father Omar Ali was also gravely injured when he tried to stop the attackers and save his daughter.
Wahida and her father were first taken to Rangpur Medical College Hospital. The UNO was later moved to the ICU of Rangpur Community Medical College Hospital.
As her condition was critical, the UNO was airlifted to Dhaka by a Bangladesh Air Force helicopter in the afternoon and admitted to the National Institute of Neuro Sciences and Hospital (NINSH) in Agargaon.
A surgery was performed at the hospital on Thursday night. At least nine head injuries were found while the broken piece of skull bone, which was pressed inside, was removed during the surgery, said one of the doctors who performed the surgery.
“Her condition is better than last night. She is stable but not out of danger. As she suffered brain hemorrhage, anything might happen. It will take time to confirm anything on her improvement,” a doctor, who was part of the team that performed the surgery, told Dhaka Tribune on Thursday.