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A case has been filed against former Cumilla-6 MP (Sadar) AKM Bahauddin Bahar and his daughter former Cumilla city mayor Tahseen Bahar Suchona over allegations of ordering people to open fire on a protest by the Anti-discrimination Student Movement.
A man named Choton Mia filed the case on Monday night, said Md Firoz Hossain, chief of the Cumilla Kotwali Model Police Station.
The case accuses 225 named suspects, including Bahar and Suchona, and another 150 unnamed others. Most of the suspects are activists or supporters of the Awami League and its affiliate organisations.
On Sunday night, Bahar and Suchona had been accused alongside 60 others in a case over the killing of 22-year-old Masum Mia, who was hacked and shot to death amid the recent protests.
The new case says that on the afternoon of Jul 19, a group of over 50 students and citizens marched from Cumilla’s Dakhin Chartha area to Kandirpar in a protest called by the Anti-discrimination Student Movement.
A group under the orders of prime suspects Bahar and his daughter Suchona then attacked the protest, firing on them, beating them, and hacking them, the complaint says. Many were hurt.
Since the fall of the Awami League government, most of the suspects in the case have gone into hiding, OC Firoz said. Police are conducting raids to arrest them.
Bahar was elected as an Awami League MP to the Cumilla Sadar seat for four consecutive terms since 2008. His oldest daughter Suchona was elected mayor of the Cumilla City Corporation on Mar 9. She was removed from the post by a government order on Monday.
There have been attacks, vandalism, looting and arson at the home of Bahar and the metropolitan Awami League office by angry students and citizens since the Awami League government fell on Aug 5.
It is not yet clear whether Bahar and his daughter Suchona are in the country or abroad. Their mobile phones have been switched off since Aug 5. Despite repeated attempts, bdnews24.com has not been able to contact them for comment.