Two cases filed over Qur’an burning in Sylhet

Sylhet Bureau :

Police on Monday night filed two cases in connection with the incidents of burning 45 copies of the holy Qur’an at a collegiate school in Sylhet on Sunday night and attacking on the cops and vandalising vehicles by local people.

Kotwali police station officer-in-charge Mohammad Ali Mahmud confirmed it.

He said that sub-inspector Rashed Fazal filed a case against the three arrestees on charge of setting copies of the holy Qur’an on fire while sub-inspector Anjan Kumar Devnath filed another alleging some 300 people creating obstruction in discharging public duty, assaulting cops and vandalising their vehicles.

The police official also said that three arrestees were produced before the chief metropolitan magistrate court in Sylhet on Tuesday noon with a seven-day remand appeal.

‘The court, however, did not hear the remand appeal and ordered to send them to jail in the case,’ he added.

The arrestees were Nurur Rahman, 50, chairman of the governing body of Sylhet Ideal School and College at Dhanuhatarpar of Akhalia area in the city, Ishaq Ahmed, 48, the collegiate schools’ part-time teacher and Mahbub Alam (45), son of Idris Ali of Baulapara area under Haluarghat upazila in Mymensingh, the police said.

On Sunday night, thousands of people had crowded in front of Sylhet Ideal School and College protesting burning holy Qur’an by the institution chairman Nurur Rahman along with Mahbub Alam.

A huge number of forces from Jalalabad and Kotwali police station of Sylhet Metropolitan Police rushed to the spot after receiving the news and protected Nurur and Mahbub from the agitating people after locking them into a room of the collegiate school.

The angry people pelted brickbats on the police as the cops barred them from entering in the collegiate school, leaving 20 police personnel injured.

The mobs also vandalised three vehicles of the police.

Later, additional law enforcers including Crime Response Team and Rapid Action Battalion, reached to the spot and took the situation in control early Tuesday after firing shots in blank, exploding sound grenades and teargas shells.

Nurur Rahman said in the police interrogation that Ishaq gave him a carton containing new copies of the holy Qur’an and a sack full of unusable copies of the holy book on Sunday afternoon.

Ishaq was asked to distribute the new copies among the students and burn the olds, the police quoted Nurur as saying.