PIRGACHA, RANGPUR — Angry relatives, community members, and political activists demonstrated outside the Pirgacha Police Station on Saturday morning, halting an ambulance carrying the body of a student political leader to demand an impartial investigation into his fatal fall during a police raid.
The deceased, 29-year-old Monarul Islam Boksi, served as the vice-president of the Savar Upazila unit of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Monarul lost his life on Thursday evening after falling from the rooftop of a residential quarters inside the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC) in Savar, Dhaka. His father, Jafar Ali Boksi, works as a security guard at the facility and lived in the quarters where Monarul resided. The family originally comes from Dakshin Hatibandha village in Gaibandha’s Sundarganj upazila.
Tensions flared when the ambulance transporting Monarul’s body halted near the station at approximately 8:00 am. Grief-stricken family members broke into weeping, prompting more than 150 residents from his ancestral village—located roughly ten kilometres away—to gather outside the precinct. The crowd confronted local authorities, alleging official misconduct and demanding accountability, before local political figures intervened to restore calm.
Contested Circumstances Surrounding the Fall
Accounts regarding the events leading up to the fatal fall remain sharply conflicted. According to the victim’s elder brother, Mamdel Hossain Boksi, the raid stemmed from an elopement involving Monarul’s nephew and a teenage girl from Pirgacha. The family maintains the couple had married voluntarily and were residing in Savar.
Mamdel alleged that the girl’s father, identified as Mintu, accompanied officers from both Pirgacha and Savar Model Police Stations to the BPATC quarters. He claimed an argument erupted on the building’s roof between Monarul, the girl’s father, and members of the raiding party, culminating in Monarul being shoved off the edge. Mamdel stated that those present told the family to transport Monarul to a hospital before leaving the location.
Monarul was rushed to the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, where doctors declared him dead. Following a post-mortem examination on Friday, authorities released the body to his family, who brought him to Dakshin Hatibandha for burial after Saturday’s Zuhr prayers.
Official Account and Internal Inquiry
Law enforcement officials offered a contrasting version of the incident. Police reports indicate that officers were executing a search operation based on a general diary (GD) filed in Pirgacha concerning the missing teenager, after receiving intelligence that she was inside the flat.
According to investigators, while officers were interviewing Monarul’s father inside the apartment, a heavy impact was heard from the exterior courtyard. Officers descended to find Monarul lying motionless on the ground. To establish the precise chronology and investigate potential lapses, police authorities have formed a five-member internal inquiry committee.
Selim Malik, Officer-in-Charge of Pirgacha Police Station, explained that the demonstrators brought the ambulance to the station seeking information about the jurisdiction, intelligence, and personnel involved in the Savar raid. He noted that officers provided detailed explanations, after which the gathering dispersed peacefully with the body.
Mofassirul Islam, Member Secretary of the Pirgacha Upazila Chhatra Dal, urged authorities to conduct a transparent probe so that those truly at fault face legal consequences without subjecting innocent bystanders to harassment.
By Saturday evening, no formal murder complaint had been lodged. Saiful Alam, Officer-in-Charge of Savar Model Police Station, confirmed that official charges had not yet been registered. The victim’s family clarified that burial proceedings had delayed formal actions, adding that they intend to lodge a murder case with Savar Model Police Station shortly.
