Six coastguard men sued on charge of killing fisherman
A case was lodged with Barisal Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court against six coastguard men yesterday on charge of killing a fisherman and injuring two others following the fishermen's refusal to give illegal toll.
Harun-or-Rashid, secretary Barisal district unit of Bangladesh Khudra MatsyajibiJeley Samity filed the case No 202/ 12 under Section 156 of criminal procedure code with the court for receiving order for registering it as a regular murder case with the police station concerned and arresting the accused.
Toufizuddin, senior chief petty officer, SK Kar, AB Fazlu and Azim, members, and Jasim and Razu, associates of coastguard, were made accused in the case for killing fisherman Jewel Farazi, 18, son of Mustafa Farazi of Lamchhari area under Barisal Sadar upazila, by shooting and injuring fishermen Kabir Hossain, 40, and Abdul Hannan, 20, after they allegedly refused to pay 'monthly bribe money' to the coastguard, court sources said.
After hearing the petition, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Zahidul Kabir asked the officer in charge (OC) of Kawnia police station to register it as a regular case immediately and investigate it, said Sahadat Hossain, bench officer of the court, and advocate Shamsul Huq, lawyer for the complainant.
"The coastguard members often harass the marginal fishermen by demanding bribe, collect illegal tolls and torture fishermen in case of refusal to meet their illegal demands," the complainant said in the case.
"Only one week into resuming fishing after a seven-month ban, the coastguard patrol team on June 6 demanded their monthly bribe from the poor marginal fishermen engaged in fishing in Arial Kha and Kirtankhola rivers.
"When the fishermen expressed their inability to give the bribe money, the agitated coastguard members beat the fishermen and at one stage opened fire on them. The fishermen tried to flee by jumping into the river and marginal fishermen Jewel Farazi, Hannan, and Kabir Hossain received bullet injuries during the incident.
"The coastguards then chased and nabbed injured Kabir and Hannan while floating body of bullet-hit Jewel was recovered from the river the next day," goes the case statement.
Rafikul Islam, OC of Kawnia police station, said, "We have not yet received the court order about the case lodged by the fishermen against coastguard members. After receiving that we will act according to the direction of the court under legal procedure."
Lieutenant Commander Nur, spokesman of the coastguard Barisal station, said the six-member coastguard team, led by Toufiz, senior chief petty officer, were compelled to shoot four rounds of blank fire after the agitated fishermen declined to stop fishing by using banned thickly knitted 'current' net or 'moshari' net and injured a coastguard member.
Two of the fishermen were captured and handed over to the police after lodging a case for creating obstacles to performing official duty, using banned nets for fishing and attacking law enforcers, he added.
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