When will struggle for dominance end ? : Two leaders murdered in 5 months amid power struggles in Araihazar!
Rafiqul Islam Rana, Araihazar (Narayanganj)
In Araihazar, Narayanganj, two leaders—one from the BNP and the other from the Jubo Dal—have been murdered over the last five months due to conflicts over dominance. While Nazrul Islam Azad, the Member of Parliament for the Narayanganj-2 constituency, has promised that punitive action will be taken against the masterminds and those involved in both murders—and the police are pursuing legal proceedings accordingly—the general public is left wondering: why is there so much conflict over dominance, and will it ever come to an end ?
On Wednesday at around 10:00 PM, Zahir Fakir—the joint convener of the Araihazar Upazila Jubo Dal and president of the Kalapaharia Union Jubo Dal—was killed after being repeatedly struck with sharp weapons by assailants in the Char Kishoreganj area of Sonargaon. He was the son of Abdur Rahman from Khaliarchar village in the same union. Although his ancestral home was in Araihazar, he had been living in a rented house in the Munshiganj Sadar area for about 15 years. He also owned a pharmacy in the Char Kishoreganj area of Sonargaon. According to police and local sources, while Zahir Fakir was returning home after closing his shop on Wednesday night, miscreants attacked him with sharp machetes, hacking him repeatedly before leaving him on the road. Local residents later rescued him and took him to a hospital in Munshiganj, where the attending physician declared him dead
Meanwhile, just five months earlier, a BNP leader named Osman Gani (40) was hacked to death in an incident linked to the illegal extraction of soil. Osman Gani served as the general secretary of the Brahmandi Union BNP. The incident occurred around 1:45 AM on the night of May 20, in the Kaundar Chak area—near a wetland in the Panchgaon Charpara locality of Duptara Union. Osman Gani was the son of the late Abdur Rashid from the Bara Binairchar area of the upazila. He is the son-in-law of Upazila BNP President Yusuf Ali Bhuiyan and the uncle of Jubayer Hossain Zikur, a former member secretary of the District Chhatra Dal. OC of Araihazar Police Station, Md. Sabjel Hossain, stated that one of the two incidents occurred before he took charge, while the other took place within the jurisdiction of Sonargaon Police Station.
A case has been filed at Sonargaon Police Station regarding the murder of Zahir, and several suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder of Osman. Citing the OC of Sonargaon Police Station, he added that a team from the SRB-11 unit successfully arrested Rizvi—a Union-level Chhatra Dal leader and the primary accused in the Zahir murder case—in Cox’s Bazar on Monday.
