Fear has gripped family members of Awami League leader and freedom fighter Mokter Hossain Mridha, who was assaulted last month in Sailkupa upazila of Jhenaidah, as all 10 accused have been released on bail. Sumon Mridha, a lawyer and son of Mokter, said his father was standing in front of a medicine shop adjacent to the Sailkupa upazila health complex on the evening of October 18. Suddenly, a group of youths, belonging to the Jubo League and Chhatra League, carrying sharp weapons pounced on him. As Morshed Mridha, another son of Mokter, tried to save his father, the attackers also started beating him up. Both sustained severe injuries and were rushed to the nearby upazila health complex. They were shifted to the Jhenaidah General Hospital from where they were taken to a private hospital in Dhaka where they underwent surgery.
The attackers were Jubo League and Chhatra League leaders close to Abdul Hyee, lawmaker of the Jhenaidah-1 constituency and president of the district AL, and Mosharraf Hossain Sona Sikder, upazila parishad chairman and president of the Sailkupa upazila AL.
Sumon said the attack on his father followed a tender work of the local government's engineering department at Sailkupa in Jhenaidah. The estimated figure of the tender was Tk. 6.5 crore. He said they filed a complaint with the police against 10 leaders, including the organising secretary of the district AL and APS to the lawmaker, Abdul Hakim, vice-chairman of the upazila parishad, Shamim Mollah, and some other Jubo League and Chhatra League leaders. The police arrested the accused, but the court granted them bail. When contacted, Mosharraf Hossain Sona Sikder said Mokter was attacked by some agitated activists of the Jubo League and Chhatra League following a conflict within the party at Sailkupa. But none of his associates was involved, he added. Sailkupa police station officer-in-charge (OC) Tarikul Islam said he cannot comment on the accused securing bail, as it is a matter of the court. The police, on their part, had carried out a thorough investigation into the incident. They visited the spot and seized footage of the attack immediately after the incident, the OC added.