S M Masud Rana

Another murder case was filed yesterday against 16 persons, including former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, as a class four student died in random firing from helicopter over the protesters at city’s Mohammadpur on July 19.

Victim’s uncle Abdullah Abu Sayeed Bhuiyan filed this case in Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhuri’s court today.

The court accepted the statement of the plaintiff and ordered Mohammadpur Police Station to register the complaint as a first information report (FIR).

The other accused in the case are – former Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former Law Minister Anisul Haque, former LGRD Minister Tajul Islam, former Textile Minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak, former Foreign Affairs Minister Hasan Mahmud, former State Minister for Information Mohammad Ali Arafat, former Prime Minister’s Advisor Salman F. Rahman, Mustafa Zalam Mohiuddin MP, former IGP , Additional IGPs, former DB chief, former RAB DG, former DMP Commissioner, former joint commissioner Biplab Kumar Sarkar and unidentified members of the helicopter patrol team.

According to the complaint of the case, RAB members fired indiscriminately on the students from several helicopters at the instructions of the accused on the students who were peacefully protesting on July 19, during the anti-discrimination mass uprising of students and people.

When the shots were being fired, the victim Zobaid Hosen Emon, 12, was shot and got head injuries. He was quickly rescued and taken to Ibn Sina Hospital in Dhanmondi, where the duty doctors declared him dead.

The complaint also said that many students and commoners were also killed in firing with sniper rifles from distant roof tops of various high-rise buildings in the area.

Many also reported incidents like- preventing critically injured people from reaching hospitals, beating under treatment patients and secretly burying dead bodies after taking them from hospitals without the consent of their families, the document said.

A number of cases were filed against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and others on charges of murder, genocide and crimes against humanity in the past couple of days.