Desk Report:
A banner of a temporary police camp has been hung at the house of former Awami League government’s State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak in Natore. Police claim that this tactic was taken to save the building from vandalism by an agitated crowd or mob.
Palaks house becomes a
A picture of the hanging of the banner went viral on social media on Thursday. It shows two youths tying a banner rope to the balcony grill on the second floor of Palak’s three-story house in Goraunpara of Singra Municipality in the dark. The banner reads ‘Temporary Police Camp, Singra Police Station, Natore’. Local residents said that Singra Police Station is a 5-minute walk from Palak’s house and the Assistant Superintendent of Police (Singra Circle) office is a 10-minute walk. The two youths put up the banner at the house in the presence of some policemen of Singra Police Station after 7 pm on Wednesday. After some time, curious people gathered when the incident came to light. However, the banner was not seen there on Thursday morning. According to local sources, when the Awami League government fell in the student-public uprising on August 5, Palak’s house was vandalized, looted and set on fire on that day. Since then, the house has been abandoned. When Palak was the state minister, a room on the ground floor of the house was allocated for the rest of the police members on his protocol. Many people knew this room as a police camp since then. There was also a flag stand on the balcony of the room.
Palaks house becomes a
When asked about the installation and removal of the banner of the temporary police camp at Palak’s house, Singra Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Asmaul Haque told Ajker Patrika, “We had information that a group of people would vandalize the house of former state minister Palak through a mob. Since the house at Dhanmondi 32 was vandalized, this house in Singra may have been inspired by that. However, no one came to vandalize the house because it was a temporary police camp. “Later, as the situation normalized, the banner was removed. Now you can come and see, the banner is no longer there.”
