Polls boycotters behind Rangamati attack, CEC hints

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Bangla Tribune Report
Published : 18:45, Mar 21, 2019 | Updated : 19:30, Mar 21, 2019

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda. FILE PHOTO

Two days after the Rangamati killings of seven people on Upazila polls duty, the chief election commissioner (CEC) hinted at the involvement of those who boycotted the election.
“The perpetrators are yet to be identified. An investigation is underway; anything certain can be said after it’s completed. However, several regional outfits contested the election and some of them boycotted it. We suspect them to be behind the attack,” CEC KM Nurul Huda told the media on Thursday (Mar 21).
On Monday (Mar 18), unidentified gunmen at the district’s Baghaichhari Upazila shot dead the seven after the end of the second phase of the Upazila election boycotted by an organisation of Chattogram Hill Tracts people.
At least 14 others were injured when the gunmen carried out the attack in Noi Mile area on Baghaichhari-Dighinala road.
In a case started on Wednesday, police have accused 50 unidentified men over the ambush.
The government has formed a seven-strong panel to find the reasons for the killing and advice on ways to prevent violence in the hill tracts, which visited the scene on Thursday.
CEC Huda told reporters that they were in touch with the authorities over the incident.
Responding to a query, he claimed that the security measures put in place for the polls in the hill tracts were adequate before adding “However, an ambush and that too, in a remote hilly region, is hard to anticipate.”
According to him, the premeditated attack lasted for only one to one-and-half minute.
“It was impossible for the BGB team in the convoy to retaliate within such a short time. But we do not think there was any negligence from their part. They started a search raid soon after the attack,” said Huda.

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