Locals have given a 48-hour ultimatum to arrest those involved in the murder of Advocate Clerks Association General Secretary Mohammad Toha (48) in Patiya, Chittagong.
Toha’s family and locals gave the ultimatum at a human chain organized in the Pachuria area of Patiya on the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway at 3 pm on Friday. More than a hundred people from Habilasdwip Union participated in the human chain and demanded the arrest and maximum punishment of those involved in the murder.
According to police and local sources, Mohammad Toha was beaten up on the night of July 31 in the Notunbari area of Monaf Hajir Para in Habilasdwip Union of the upazila over a past feud and protesting banana theft. He later died. The deceased Toha is the son of the deceased Abul Bashar of the area.
He was the general secretary of the Patiya Advocate Clerks Association. A person named Mohammad Anwar (29) has been arrested in this incident. The deceased Mohammad Toha’s daughter Mosammat Marwa, sisters Rokeya Begum and Satara Begum, and niece Shawkat Babu spoke at the human chain. Omar Farooq, Mohammad Forkan and others spoke on behalf of the locals.
Toha’s daughter Mosammat Marwa drew the attention of the Prime Minister during the human chain and said that her father’s killers should be brought to justice quickly. If justice is not served, the killers may commit more such incidents in the future. Therefore, she sought the Prime Minister’s intervention on behalf of her family. Locals said that there are allegations that those involved in Toha’s murder were involved in various criminal activities before.
They claimed that they had planned to kill Toha because there was no fair trial in these incidents. They also said that even though two weeks have passed since the murder, all those involved have not been brought to justice. This silence of the administration has made them worried. They warned that if all those involved in the murder are not arrested within the next 48 hours, they will be forced to take to the streets. At the same time, they demanded to ensure speedy trial by drawing the attention of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Prime Minister.
