Bangladesh Army yesterday filed a case against 50 to 60 unidentified people in connection with the recent clashes between law-enforcers and villagers in Rupganj of Narayanganj.
Aminur Rahman, a warrant officer of unit 34 of East Bengal Regiment in Dhaka Cantonment, filed the case with Rupganj Police Station around 12:30am.
The case statement claims that the accused inflicted a loss of Tk 45.2 lakh on the army by attacking its camps during the violence.
It also says a local vested interest group had been creating various types of obstacles to an army housing scheme in the area over the last few months. The group created a negative image and fear of the army and the housing scheme among the local people including landowners through instigation, the case reads.
A total of 138 army personnel including officers who were deployed in four camps in Rupganj on that day have been made witnesses in the case.
More than 50 people including law-enforcers were hurt in a string of clashes between the law-enforcers and villagers over "forced purchase of land" by army personnel for a private army housing scheme in Rupganj upazila on October 23.
A villager who had sustained a bullet wound during the clashes died in a hospital in the capital the next day, while three other villagers who had joined the demonstration remained missing for the next couple of days.
In the case, Warrant Officer Aminur Rahman alleged that some unruly persons and criminals from Bariasoni, Moushuri and Purbogram villages under Rupganj upazila put up barricades with logs and burning tyres on Rupganj-Demra and Rupganj-Khilkhet roads at 5:00am on that day.
Armed with locally made weapons, villagers and outsiders started marching towards temporary army training camps in Purbogram, Bariasoni, and Moushuri at 6:00am, and the camp commander directed his troops to be patient, it reads.
At 10:00am, some 50 to 60 people armed with locally made weapons entered Tanmoushuri army camp illegally. At that time the troops in the camp were beaten, the camp was set on fire, and goods were looted. The protesters vandalised two jeeps and a pick-up truck parked at the camp. When the troops opened fire into the air in self-defence, the attackers dispersed, it adds.
The unruly criminals launched another attack on the camp at 11:00am with firearms, explosives, and local weapons, and the troops fired into the air to save their lives and state property. As the mob was not quitting, the troops had to fire again into the air. Under such a circumstance a civilian was found lying on the ground inside the camp, the statement says.
Injured civilians and three army personnel were airlifted to Combined Military Hospital in the capital around 3:00pm. After the four camps were vacated, the attackers launched fresh attacks on the camps around 3:30pm, looted those, and set those on fire, it claims.
Meanwhile, Zulhas Mia, a local businessman, filed another case with Rupganj police station on Thursday night against 11 named and 200 unnamed people for launching an attack on his house.
Forkan Shikder, officer-in-charge of the police station, confirmed the filing of the case by the army, and said the situation in the area is under control.
No arrest was made till yesterday in the cases, he added.
Earlier, police filed a case against 3,000 to 4,000 unidentified people, and Rapid Action Battalion filed another case against 3,000 unidentified people in connection with the violence.
Meanwhile, fresh panic griped the villagers following the Bangladesh Army case. Villagers said they pass nights at their relatives' houses in fear of arrest although police asked them to return home.
The families of the three missing men are still waiting for the bodies of their loved ones. Family members claimed that the law enforcers had shot them during the clashes and took them away.