Police’s ‘awareness’ miking with ‘terrorist’ Sajjad
The police have conducted miking operations on Sajjad Hossain alias Chhota Sajjad, a listed ‘terrorist’ of the Chittagong City Police, in Raozan and Bayezid Bostami of the city. However, the police could not arrest any of the associates of this ‘terrorist’ who is on remand or recover weapons. The police say that the miking was done to create ‘awareness’ on the way back from the operation. However, several police officers, on condition of anonymity, said, ‘The remand was taken to reveal important information from the accused. There is a need to know who has the weapons, who gives money, who is behind the scenes, etc. There is no precedent for showing the accused by miking. This gives the fugitive accused an opportunity to escape.’
On March 15, people caught Sajjad from a shopping mall in Dhaka. Earlier, on January 29, the city police commissioner announced a reward for his arrest. The day before, Sajjad threatened to beat up the officer-in-charge (OC) of Bayezid Bostami police station on Facebook live. He has 15 cases against him, including murder and weapons. After Sajjad’s arrest, a double murder took place in Chittagong. On March 30, a private car was chased and shot at in the city’s Baklia Access Road area. Two occupants were killed. Police believe that the incident occurred due to a dispute between ‘terrorist’ Sarwar Hossain and Sajjad. Police suspect that his followers attacked Sarwar’s associates to get Sajjad arrested. Firoza Begum, the mother of one of the victims, Bakhtiar Hossain, filed a case with Baklia Police Station on Tuesday. Sajjad, his wife Tamanna Sharmin and seven others were accused in the case. The other five accused in the case are Md. Hasan, Mobarak Hossain, Md. Khorshed, Md. Raihan and Md. Borhan. They are known to be Sajjad’s followers. Meanwhile, after looking at the CCTV camera footage, the police identified Md. Belal, Md. Three people named Manik and Sajeeb were arrested after being identified. CCTV camera footage showed that 13 people on seven motorcycles participated in the attack. They had 10 pistols and shotguns in their hands. But no weapons have been recovered yet.
On Sunday, the court granted Sajjad a second five-day remand in the murder case of brick and sand businessman Aftab Uddin of Chandgaon Police Station. Aftab Uddin was shot dead on October 21 last year. Then, at night, the police took Sajjad to Kadalpur area of Raojan. There, the police miked him. The next day, Monday afternoon, miked him in Bayezid Bostami area as well.
A video of the police miking the arrested Sajjad has gone viral on Facebook. It shows members of the Chandgaon Police Station-Police and the SWAT unit of the police’s specialized unit Counter Terrorism walking around Sajjad. Sajjad, wearing handcuffs, was wearing a bulletproof jacket and a helmet on his head. A policeman announces on a hand microphone, “Terrorist and terror Chhota Sajjad has been arrested on the orders of CMP Commissioner Sir. There will be no place for terrorism in the state. If any terrorist stirs up trouble in your area, they will face the same fate as Chhota Sajjad.”
When asked, Chandgaon Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Aftab Uddin told Prothom Alo that the operation was conducted in Raozan based on information received from Sajjad. On the way back from there, people were miked to create awareness.
