A ruling party lawmaker in Bangladesh was arrested today for allegedly shooting and injuring a nine-year-old boy, an incident that sparked a massive public outrage.
Manjurul Islam Liton, a member of the ruling Awami League party, critically wounded Shahadat Hossain Shoura two weeks ago when he allegedly fired gunshots from his car targeting boy's uncle.
Liton, 45, became angry when he asked Shoura's uncle to stop but when the uncle did not respond, he pulled out his gun and fired it, missing the uncle and hitting the boy, who is in hospital in a stable condition.
The incident triggered a massive outrage at his constituency with his fellow partymen joining the protests, prompting the lawmaker to take a secret refuge at a relative's home in the capital Dhaka.
But as the uproar continued, he resurfaced on Monday and sought an anticipatory bail at the High Court, which turned down his petition and ordered him to surrender before a lower court at his constituency.
An attorney general moved to the Supreme Court seeking to stay the High Court order so police could arrest him immediately instead of waiting for his surrender, a request which the apex court immediately accepted paving ways for Liton's arrest last night.
"The magistrate denied his bail prayer," said a police officer in northwestern Gaibandha.
Police detectives arrested him raiding a relative's house.
The reports said several hundred supporters of the controversial lawmaker tried to storm the courtroom but police prevented them with batons and by firing gunshots in the air just before Liton was escorted to the dock.
