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Move to 'Pacify' Hoteliers

Strike withdrawn, none files case at Kuakata

16 June 2009, 18:00 PM

NATIONAL

Our Correspondent, Patuakhali

Local Awami League (AL) leaders are trying to convince the leaders of Kuakata Hotel Owners Association apparently to save party activists who were involved in ransacking Hotel Sky Palace on Saturday night. According to sources, local police have been 'instructed' by top AL leadership of the area not to record any formal complaint regarding the attack. As a result Golam Sarwar, owner of the ransacked Hotel Sky Palace, was unable to file a case until yesterday. On Monday, local AL leaders and activists, led by lawmaker from Patuakhali- 4 (Kalapara) Mahbubur Rahman Talukder, held a meeting with the hotel owners and the police. In the meeting, Mahbubur Rahman, also a member of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, requested the hotel owners to withdraw their strike considering the interest of tourism in Kuakata. Immediately after the meeting, the hotel owners withdrew their indefinite strike, which was called on Sunday after a local AL leader's musclemen ransacked Sky Palace Hotel and beat up its owner Golam Sarwar and four staff. The lawmaker also formed a two-member probe body headed by Abdul Bareq Molla, local UP chairman, and Ishaq Ali, officer-in-charge (OC) of Kalapara Police Station. He asked the probe body to identify the real culprits and assess the damages done to the hotel during the attack led by AL leader Monir Bhuiyan. Golam Sarwar told The Daily Star that he had submitted a written complaint on Monday morning to the officer- in-charge of Kalapara Police Station, who refused to record the case. But OC Ishaq Ali said Golam Sarwar requested him verbally not to record the case as the local MP assured him that the case would be filed on recommendations of the probe body. Locals alleged that the AL leaders are trying to save their party men who were seen ransacking the hotel and beating its owner and staff.