The High Court yesterday asked the authorities concerned to remove handcuffs of three injured Santals of Gaibandha who were arrested in a case filed for attacking police with arrows during a clash on November 6. It also asked the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, deputy inspector general of Rangpur range and superintendent of police in Gaibandha to submit a compliance report before it by November 16. In response to a writ petition, the HC bench comprising Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice Krishna Debnath came up with the orders. The HC bench also issued a rule asking the government to explain within 10 days why handcuffing Choron Soren, Bimal Kisku and Dijen Tudu should not be declared illegal.
Among the arrested people, two are now receiving treatment at Rangpur Medical College Hospital while another at National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO) in Dhaka. Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua filed the writ petition with the High Court seeking its order upon the government to open the handcuffs of the three Santals.
The petition was filed on November 13 before the High Court following media reports published in various national daily over the matter.
Later, Jyotirmoy Barua told reporters that normally the police handcuff the arrested people during the time of their movement from one place to another. But, the arrested Santals had been injured seriously and they could not move without the help of another people, he said, adding that they had been handcuffed and tied up by ropes around their waists, which is inhuman. “We placed several reports before the High Court over the matter and the HC bench passed the order,” he noted. The three were arrested on November 7 after Gobindaganj police filed a case against 34 named and 300 unnamed people for allegedly attacking the law enforcers. The clash on November 6 ensued at Shahebganj cane farm of Rangpur Sugar Mills located in Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha over harvesting sugarcane. The clash left two Santals dead and 25 people, including nine cops, injured. Asked why cops opened fire on the Santals, Superintendent of Police Ashraful Alam later said police were forced to fire shots in presence of a magistrate as they came under arrow attack. In 1952, the erstwhile Pakistan government had acquired 1,840 acres of land at Shahebganj to set up a sugarcane farm.