DHAKA: A former minister and an adviser to Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia was on Wednesday shot at by unidentified attackers when he was returning home after a meeting with the former premier.
“The attackers shot Reaz Rahman as he was returning home after a meeting with the (BNP) chairperson (Zia),” a media wing staff of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief told reporters.
Rahman, a career diplomat-turned politician who served as the foreign secretary during Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s government between 1991-1996, was immediately rushed to a nearby private hospital with bullet wounds. He was a former junior minister for foreign affairs in BNP-led government between 2001-2006.
“He received four bullets – two in his leg and two in the waist,” said a doctor at the hospital where he was admitted. Witnesses said eight people on three motorbikes stopped Rahman’s car as it reached in front of a five-star hotel in Gulshan area here.
“They smashed windshields of the car, set it on fire and then we heard sounds of gunshots,” a witness told the online version of the mass circulation Prothom Alo newspaper.
Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka police’s Gulshan division Lutful Kabir said they were trying to trace the attackers. Zia condemned the attack and alleged that it was carried out at the instigations of her arch-rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s party.
“I am angry and concerned. I have no words to condemn and protest this attack and murder attempt,” Zia, who has been confined to her office since January 3, said in a statement. The incident came as BNP-enforced nationwide transport blockade entered its seventh day on Wednesday.
Fourteen people have been killed in the violence since January 5, the first anniversary of last year’s controversial polls boycotted by the opposition. (PTI)
