Muggers Throw off 7 from Train
Probe body formed, two cops, 2 Ansars suspended
Two police constables and two Ansar members were suspended yesterday after muggers pushed seven people off trains, killing four of them and injuring three, after looting valuables in separate incidents on Wednesday, said railway sources.
The suspended constables Siddique and Nurul Huda and Ansar members Suruj Ali and Emdad Hossain were posted on Agnibina Intercity train that day, said Railway Circle Inspector Amirul Islam Dewan.
Among the deceased, the two friends Reza and Pritom Kumar Biswas Soubhik, students of Daffodil University and Shanto-Mariam University in the capital respectively, were travelling on Agnibina Intercity, said police.
Meanwhile, the three injured, travelling on the rooftop of a Dewanganj-bound train, identified two alleged muggers, Hasu and Afser Ali, among four people arrested from the rooftop after it reached Jamalpur on Wednesday night, said police.
The arrestees Hasu, 16, Afser Ali, 15, Johurul, 16, and Subuj, 17, were produced before a Jamalpur court, which sent them to jail yesterday afternoon.
Hasu is son of late Idris Ali of Sarder para in Jamalpur town and Afser is the son of Ahab Uddin of Kalkipara in Bakshiganj upazila of Jamalpur, said Officer-in-Charge (OC) Shaker Ahmed of Jamalpur Government Railway Police (GRP).
Neither the identities of the two remaining bodies nor which train they were travelling on could be confirmed.
Railway authorities formed a three member probe committee to investigate whether there was negligence in duty by police in the incidents, said sources.
The committee, headed by Inspector of Railway Police Mainuddin and comprising OC Delwar Hossain of Mymensingh GRP and OC Abul Hashem of Kishoreganj GRP, would submit its report within a week, added the sources.
COMMENT OF FAMILY MEMBERS
Family members of the two university students blamed negligence of on duty policemen in the train for the deaths and demanded a neutral probe into the incident to punish those involved.
“We inquired with GRP police of Mymensingh and Jamalpur but they did not give us any information till Thursday morning,” alleged Soubhik's uncle Promit Kumar Biswas Litu.
Litu said Soubhik spoke to his elder sister over phone around 8:00pm that day after getting into the train from Jamalpur but Soubhik's mother found his cellphone switched off from around 9:30pm.
They became even more worried when Reza's father Nabab Ali called him around 12:30am to inform that Reza too had not arrived home, said Litu.
“I repeatedly tried to reach Soubhik and suddenly someone received the call but I only heard the sound of the running train.
“When my nephew called on the number, the receiver threatened him not to call,” Litu said.
All this happened several hours after the incident but what were the law enforcers doing during this time, questioned Litu.
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