Key accused Jamaat activist found dead:Daily Star

Police here yesterday recovered the body of a Jamaat activist who was the prime accused in the arson attack on a night coach around two months ago that left six passengers killed at Jaigirhat of Mithapukur upazila. Aged 28, Shah Nazmul Huda alias Lablu was from Mirzapur village in the upazila. He was the former president of Mithapukur upazila unit Chhatra Shibir, the pro-Jamaat students' platform.
Humayun Kabir, officer-in-charge of Mithapukur Police Station, said criminals blockaded the Rangpur-Dhaka highway at Boldipukur in the upazila around 3:30am yesterday by felling trees across the road. As police reached the spot to clear the blockade, criminals hurled around 10 crude bombs at the law enforcers, leaving Sub-inspector Tawhidul Islam and constable Shafiqul Islam injured. Police retaliated by firing 17 bullets, he added. Locals in the morning found Lablu's body in a pond in the area. Acting on information, police recovered the body and sent it to Rangpur Medical College Hospital for an autopsy. Abdur Razzak, superintendent of police in Rangpur, said Lablu was accused in 10 cases for his alleged involvement in violence and subversive activities, including the violence that erupted in the district following the pronouncement of death sentence to Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee by a war crimes tribunal in February 2013. According to the autopsy report, Lablu died from drowning, added Razzak. Advertisement The Daily Star could reach Lablu's family members for their comment. Four people, including a child, were burnt to death at Jaigirhat in Mithapukur on January 14 when alleged blockaders hurled a petrol bomb at a long-haul bus there. Two more died from burn injuries later. At least 85 people were killed, mostly in mindless arson attacks, since the BNP-led alliance called a nationwide indefinite blockade on January 5. Of the victims, 68 had no link with politics. Besides, at least 41 people were known to have been killed in “shootouts” with law enforcers across the country since then, according to The Daily Star reports. Of them, 18 were allegedly involved in arson attacks, claimed law enforcers. Jamaat activist Mostafa Manjil, the prime accused in the Gaibandha arson which claimed the lives of eight bus passengers on February 6, was killed in a “shootout” with the Rapid Action Battalion on February 17. Sahabuddin Patwari, president of Shibir's Chauddagram upazila unit in Comilla, was killed in a “shootout” with police on February 6. He was accused in two cases in connection with the arson attack on a bus in the district on February 3 that left eight people dead.