In 2011, a case has been registered in the incident of brutally beating Zainul Abedin Farooq, adviser to the opposition chief whip BNP chairperson, in front of the parliament building. Zainul Abdin Farooq himself filed the case against former Additional Commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Haroon Or Rashid and former Joint Commissioner of DMP Biplab Kumar Sarkar. The case was registered at Sherbangla Nagar police station in the capital around 2:30 pm.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Sherebangla Nagar Police Station Sajib De told Prothom Alo that Mohammad Haroon Or Rashid and Biplab Kumar Sarkar have been named as accused in the case. Apart from that, 20-25 other people have been made anonymous accused.
According to the statement of the case, on July 6, 2011, around 7:50 am, Farooq and other supporters of BNP, including the then MP Syeda Ashrafi Papia, Shammi Akhtar, ABM Ashraf Uddin, tried to take out a procession in support of the strike. At that time 20-25 policemen led by Haroon and Biplab started misbehaving and trying to obstruct the procession.
The statement also said that when BNP leaders asked the police to exercise restraint, Haroon and Biplab hit Farooq on the head with a stick to kill him. At that time he tried to escape from the attack by running towards Nam Bhawan. But the accused (Harun and Biplab) dragged Farooq to the street and held a pistol to his chest and threatened to kill him.
What happened that day
On July 6, 2011, 15-20 members of parliament from BNP along with him were trying to march in front of the parliament building. Then they were stopped by the then Additional Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Mohammad Haroon Or Rashid and the then Assistant Commissioner Biplab Kumar Sarkar. At one stage, under their leadership, BNP leader Farooq was brutally beaten in front of the parliament building.
During the beating, some policemen kicked the opposition chief whip and dragged him. At this time Farooq’s Genji was taken off. At one stage, his head was blown off by the police attack. Seeing the blood on Farooq’s head, the women MPs wanted to take him towards NAM Bhavan. At that time, when the police came forward again, Farooq ran towards the NAM building in self-defense. The police then followed him again and attacked Farooq and the MPs. The police tried to take Farooq to the police car by swinging it. At this time he lost consciousness. It was then informed by BNP that 11 stitches had to be given to Farooq’s head.