A case has been filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act against 48 leaders of the banned Sunamganj District Awami League and Chhatra League. The case was lodged at Sunamganj Sadar Police Station late Sunday night.
The accused include the banned Sunamganj District Awami League General Secretary Noman Bakht Polin, former municipal mayor Nader Bakht, District Chhatra League General Secretary Ashikur Rahman Ripon, District President Dipankar Kanti Das, and 44 others.
The complainant, Md. Nizam Uddin, 50, is the son of Hafiz Yakub Ali from Rabarbari village in Lakshanshree Union.
Sunamganj Sadar Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Ratan Sheikh confirmed the filing of the case on Monday night.
According to police, members of the banned Chhatra League allegedly brought out a procession on the Cheknikhara Bridge in Lakshanshree Union under Sunamganj Sadar Upazila at around 11:00 p.m. on July 31. Following a written complaint received at 12:05 a.m. on Sunday, police registered the complaint as a First Information Report (FIR) and formally filed the case.
Ashikur Rahman Ripon, General Secretary of the banned district Chhatra League committee, alleged that the case was politically motivated and falsely implicated 48 leaders of the Awami League and Chhatra League, along with 60 to 70 unnamed individuals.
He claimed that only he and Abu Talha Mitul, Vice-President of the Sadar Upazila Chhatra League, could be identified in the video related to the incident, while the others were activists from different areas. He also alleged that some individuals currently residing in India had been named as accused in the case.
OC Ratan Sheikh said the case has been registered under various provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009 (amended in 2013). He added that police have launched an investigation and initiated the necessary legal procedures based on the written complaint.
