Judge Soyeb Uddin Khan of the tribunal ordered Companiganj Police Station’s officer-in-charge to investigate the allegations and submit a report within 10 working days. The court will base its decision to hear the case or not on the OC’s report.
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Arjuman Parveen, wife of Companiganj Upazila unit AL president Khizir Hayat Khan, filed the case application on Tuesday. Quader Mirza, the brother of Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, has been named as the main accused.
Plaintiff’s counsel Advocate Harun-ur-Rashid Hawlader said that Mirza and his supporters attacked freedom fighter Khizir Khan in Basurhat on March 8, and proceeded to beat him blue ‘like a thief’, in Khizir’s own words.
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The attackers exploded improvised bombs and created panic in the locality, the advocate added.
Hawlader said Arjuman moved the court as Companiganj police had refused to register her case.
On March 15, Arjuman filed a case at the Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court No. 2 naming Mirza as the main accused. Later, the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate SM Mosleh Uddin Mizan advised the plaintiff to move the Speedy Trial Tribunal, after declining to take the case on a technicality.
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The tribunal’s decision to punt the investigation to Companiganj police, who even refused to register Arjuman’s complaint earlier, would seem to confirm the difficulty of fighting a legal battle against Quader Mirza in the Noakhali courts.