Fifteen people, including the head of the human resources department, were injured in an ambush by sacked employees at Al-Arafah Islami Bank. The incident took place on Thursday afternoon, August 7, at Dainik Bangla intersection in front of the bank’s head office. Security guard Shahinur, who was seriously injured in the attack, has been admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Mohammad Amir Hossain, the bank’s human resources department head (HR Head), who was injured in the attack, is undergoing treatment at Square Hospital.
Police have rescued three deputy managing directors (DMDs) of the bank from the hands of the attackers. The protesters have blocked the bank’s head office for 8 consecutive working days. A case is being filed with Paltan Police Station in this regard. The head office of Al-Arafah Islami Bank has been practically paralyzed for the past 8 working days by using force in the name of the protest.
Eyewitnesses said that since no one was being allowed to enter the Al-Arafah Tower building for some time, arrangements were made to sit in the neighboring Surma Tower to carry out important activities of the bank. At 4 pm, three DMDs of the bank and HR Head Amir Hossain and some others were getting into a car from Surma Tower. At that time, the protesters rushed in and surrounded their car and severely beat HR Head Amir Hossain. When the bank’s security personnel came forward to rescue them, the attackers also attacked them. And about a hundred attackers with sticks turned the entire area into a battlefield.
The injured were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Square Hospital and Islami Bank Central Hospital for treatment. The injured in the incident are HR Head Amir Hossain, Security Guard Shahinur, Liton (25), Ilias (38), Fahim (19), Rocky Hossain (26), Tofail (32), Nur Alam (42), Arif (25), Zakir Hossain (25), Sagar (29), Lutfar, Faruk and Sohel.
It is worth noting that after the fall of the dictatorship in the August 5th uprising, various irregularities in the recruitment process of Al-Arafah Islami Bank came to light in the investigation of various supervisory agencies including Bangladesh Bank. In order to bring the matter within the rules, some steps were taken on the instructions of the appropriate authorities. As part of this, an evaluation test was conducted for 1,414 identified officers. Of these, the bank authorities were forced to dismiss 547 unsuccessful ones.
The sacked officials suddenly gathered at the entrance of the Al-Arafah Islamic Bank’s main office on the morning of July 28, formed a human shield and began behaving violently. Since then, they have been blocking the main gate from morning to evening for the past 8 days. The unfortunate incident occurred on Thursday despite the bank authorities adopting a policy of not using any force to remove the protesters.
