Fire in abandoned kitchen, not in Saifullah’s home: Locals claim ‘incident staged’

Dhobaura Police Station OC: ‘No witnesses found to the allegations of arson by people shouting slogans.’

❐ BD Digest Desk

New questions have arisen after the arson incident at the house of Md. Saifullah, the organizing secretary of the Dhaka University (DU) branch of the NCP’s student organization Jatiya Chhatra Shakti.

A village house was set on fire in Dhobaura, Mymensingh. The incident took place after 3 am on Thursday. The victim’s family claims that Awami League workers were involved in the incident.

However, locals claim that the fire was set in an abandoned kitchen, not the main residence, which they suspect is a “set-up.”

Md. Saifullah is the son of Ali Hossain of Domgata village in Baghber union of Dhobaura upazila. His parents, elder brother Joynal Abedin and Md. Saifullah’s wife and two sons and daughters lived in the village house.

Local sources said the house has multiple tin living quarters. However, the fire did not break out in the main living quarters, but in a separate small kitchen. The room had cloth fencing on three sides and some cooking wood was kept inside.

According to locals, the house was not currently in regular use and was in a largely abandoned state.

Md. Saifullah said, “My house was set on fire at around 3:10 am. But the fire did not spread and was extinguished.”

On the question of who or what could have set fire to it, Md. Saifullah claimed, ‘Chhatra League-Awami League have been threatening in various ways, recently the threats have been more. In the last few issues, Awami League people were threatening in Facebook posts. Awami League did this. I will take legal action in this incident.’

The locals question this, saying that if the miscreants had attacked with the intention of causing damage, then the homes should have been their main target. But they claim that the incident of setting fire to an abandoned kitchen while leaving the homes intact has raised suspicions.

Meanwhile, Saifullah’s family has claimed that the miscreants used weapons to break through the tin fence of their house.

However, pointing to some photos circulating on social media, some locals say that the type of cut marks on the tin fence do not fully match a normal attack.

A neighbor of Saifullah said, “Usually, when someone right-handed hits him with a sharp weapon, the cuts are diagonally from right to left. But in the picture, the cuts are seen from left to right. Because of this, many people think that these cuts may have been planned. Maybe the attack on the tin was done from inside the house.”

On the night of March 8, Dhaka University student Pavel was brutally attacked with weapons on charges of being involved in the Chhatra League for sharing Bangabandhu’s March 7 speech on Facebook. After the beating, he was left unconscious at Shahbagh Police Station.

In a Facebook post about Pavel, Chhatra Shakti leader Saifullah said, “We have arrested Chhatra League members on campus. We are taking them to Shahbagh police station. No concessions will be made on the League issue.”

In another post, he also made a diabolical statement about making ‘Sehri’ with Chhatra League. Later, in the face of criticism, he hid the Facebook post from his ID.

In this regard, Saifullah claimed, “I am not sure whether my incident is related to the incident where DU’s Pavel was beaten up and handed over to the police on charges of Chhatra League.”

Some local residents have also raised questions about the timing and context of the incident. They claim that Saifullah has been receiving threats on social media since an incident on March 7. However, there has been no attack on his house so far.

Locals also claim that Saifullah’s elder brother works in Dhaka and has recently returned home. The arson incident occurred the night after he returned home. Some are also expressing doubts about the coincidence of this time.

Dhobaura Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Shafiqul Islam said, “Initially, according to Joynal Abedin’s statement, a house caught fire. In addition, I saw three puncture marks on the tin fence of the house and the tin was cut. They extinguished the fire themselves. We are investigating the incident.”

The OC also said, “Joinal claimed that the incident was committed by raising Awami League slogans. However, we have not found any witnesses to support this.”