At least four people died from gunshot injuries as the army and police personnel sprayed bullets on the people of Gopalganj on Wednesday for protesting against the rally of the radical National Citizen Party (NCP), obstructing vehicular movement on the streets, and throwing bricks.
They are Sohel Mollah, 35, a mobile accessories shop owner; Dipto Saha, 25, a clothing shop owner; Ramzan, 18, a mason, and Emon Talukder, 17, a ceramic shop employee.
None of them have undergone post-mortem examinations or autopsies. The police also did not prepare inquest reports.
However, doctors at the 250-Bed General Hospital told journalists that they all had bullet wounds.
Among them, Dipto Saha was cremated at the municipal crematorium, and Ramzan was buried at the Gatepara Municipal Graveyard on Wednesday night, Emon was laid to rest at the same graveyard at 7am on Thursday, and Sohel Molla at the family graveyard in Tungipara.
Bangabandhu’s elder daughter, Awami League President and five-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, condemned the brutality against the people of Gopalganj and likened it to the barbaric acts of the Pakistani Army in 1971.
She also instructed local leaders to ensure proper medical treatment and extend all necessary support and solidarity to the victims.
The party announced protest programmes and asked the leaders and activists to prepare for a “Long March to Jamuna” to oust the fascist, illegal government.
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Jananetri Sheikh Hasina criticised the crackdown on the people amid an indefinite curfew, when at least 100 people have been arrested in raids by the joint forces.
Political revenge
They were not linked to the Awami League or any of its affiliated organisations, according to their families and locals. They also said that Gopalganj General Hospital authorities did not conduct any autopsy and asked the families to take away the bodies.
A statement from the police on the Gopalganj situation was sent to the media by the Chief Advisor’s Press Wing on Thursday. It claimed that “unruly mobs forcibly took the bodies of the four deceased from the district hospital without allowing a postmortem.”
In another statement issued soon after the deaths on Wednesday afternoon, the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing termed the protesters “perpetrators” linked to the Awami League and Chhatra League.
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The government labelled the protests against the NCP rally as a “heinous act” and blamed the banned Chhatra League and Awami League activists.
It is astonishing that the statement did not mention the number of deaths, let alone express condolences. Instead, the government commended the army and police for their prompt intervention or excessive use of force.
The statement further glorified the radical NCP leaders as “young citizens” holding a rally peacefully, and attempts to prevent them were a “shameful violation of their fundamental rights.”
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a statement after around 24 hours to claim that army personnel opened fire in self-defense on an “unruly group” who carried out “coordinated acts of violence,” including crude bombs and brickbats hurled at security forces.
Such false and biased statements expose the unconstitutional government’s lack of accountability and authoritarian rule while establishing a mobocracy using the NCP, the King’s party, which is a brainchild of the deep state puppet and pro-Pakistani chief adviser, Muhammad Yunus.
Activists and observers warn that the army’s brutality may draw condemnation and strict measures from the United Nations and other global bodies, though the local media have suppressed details of the cruelty and highlighted the resistance as violence aimed at the King’s party, which is supported by Jamaat-Shibir.
Army brutality, unprovoked
The army’s narrative of restraint and professionalism is starkly contradicted by harrowing live footage broadcast by television channels and streamed on social media. In one video, an army officer is heard shouting expletives, ordering subordinates to “shoot kor, direct shoot kor” (aim and shoot them).
A soldier responded that bullets had already been fired, while another noted that the protesters were taunting the army to approach.
The most shocking incident, captured live, shows soldiers shooting a man, kicking his body as he lay on the street, and one soldier pressing a boot on his throat to ensure his death before loading the corpse into a police van.
Another video depicts a soldier crossing a road, kneeling, and firing across a lake in a calculated act of cold-blooded killing.
On the other hand, social media threats to dismantle the mausoleum of Bangabandhu in Tungipara for several days, changing the name of NCP’s event to “March to Gopalganj,” inflammatory speeches at the rally venue, large deployment of army and police personnel together with detectives in plainclothes, and the excessive use of force under the instructions of two advisers—Lt Gen (Retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury and Asif Mahmud—monitoring CCTV at the Police Headquarters imply that there had been a sinister plan centering on the NCP’s rally.
Attempts to conceal evidence
Ramzan’s uncle, Kalim Munsh,i said his nephew died at the hospital from bullet wounds.
“When I took him to the police station, I found the gate closed. Later, I took the body back to the hospital for an autopsy. But the hospital authorities asked me to take the body home or face problems,” he told the daily Prothom Alo.
Emon was taken to the 250-bed Gopalganj General Hospital with gunshot wounds. But the hospital did not conduct any postmortem.
Sohel Mollah’s maternal uncle, Zahidul Islam Talukder, said that his nephew’s autopsy had not been done and the hospital had not issued a death certificate.
Dipto Saha’s brother, Sanjay Saha, said that a bullet hit the right side of his stomach and exited through the left side. The doctors refused to perform an autopsy, he said.
From a press conference on Thursday, Dhaka Range DIG Rezaul Karim Mallick admitted that no autopsies were conducted on the bodies.
He did not echo the CA Press Wing’s statement, citing police, to claim that mobs took away the bodies from the hospital, but added that they would bring the matter under the legal procedure later.
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