A senior police official has said the BNP wanted to gain political mileage from the Nov 14 clash with police in front of its Naya Paltan headquarters describing the whole incident as a ‘pre-meditated attack’.
“Intelligence inputs and information gleaned from interrogation of suspects suggests, they (BNP) launched a pre-mediated attack,” Dhaka metro police’s Counterrerrorism unit chief Monirul Islam told a media briefing on Sunday (Nov 20).
Explaining the motives behind the attack, Islam said, “The attack was aimed to provoke police to launch a massive crackdown.
“They (BNP) wanted to disseminate footages of police raids to different quarters to gain political mileage, but police took no action that day,” he said.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was capable to clear the Naya Paltan area within 5 to 7 minutes, claimed the DMP additional commissioner. “We’ve collected still images, video footages from the media and indentified the attackers.”
“During interrogation, the suspects admitted that top (BNP) leaders instructed them to arm with sticks as well as wear helmets to avoid being identified,” he said.
Dismissing the claim on police harassing BNP activists, Islam said, “Police will carry out its duty and spare no criminal offenders.”
On the case over the attack on journalists during road safety protests, he said, “Investigation is under way.”