BNP leader Pintu dies at RMCH

RAJSHAHI, May 3 (UNB): Former BNP MP Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, a convict in BDR carnage case, died at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) on Sunday afternoon.
Assistant sub-inspector of RMCH police box Chanchal said Pintu was taken to the RMCH at noon after he complained of chest pain.
He breathed his last at the hospital around 12:20 pm.
Dr Rais Uddin, head of RMCH cardiology department, said Pintu might have died of cardiac arrest before he was taken to the hospital.
On November 5, 2013, Pintu, also a former president of BNP's student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, had been sentenced to life term imprisonment in the country's largest-ever case of killing at the Pilkhana Headquarters of now-defunct Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in February, 2009.
Pitu was awarded punishment for instigating the mutineers to carry out the massacre that left a total of 74 people, including 57 army officials, killed inside Pilkhana.
He was shifted to Rajshahi Central Jail from Narayanganj on April 20, said DIG Prison (Rajshahi division) Bazlur Rashid.
He said they were in a process of completing the necessary steps to hand over Pintu's body to his relatives.
Pintu had filed nomination to contest April-28 Dhaka South City Corporation polls for mayoral post, but the Election Commission cancelled his nomination during scrutiny.
He had been arrested in June, 2009 in connection with the border guard BDR mutiny case.
Pintu was detained by the police as he emerged from the High Court after seeking a 'no arrest or harassment' order in the BDR mutiny case.
He had been married with Nasima Akter Kalpana, a sister of former ward councillor of Dhaka City Corporation Saidur Ragman Newton.
BNP chairperson's media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan said Pintu's eldest son had been studying at a university in Canada and the younger one at Scholastica, Dhaka.
Meanwhile, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia expressed her deep shock at the death of former BNP MP Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu. In a condolence message, Khaleda Zia said, "Like other countrymen as well as BNP leaders and activists, I'm also deeply shocked at the death of Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu."
People would always remember Pintu's role in all the democratic movement against the past autocratic regimes of the country, she observed. The BNP chief also alleged that Pintu died because of the negligence of the prison authorities.
Despite High Court's order, the prison authorities did not ensure proper treatment of Pintu's ailment. Though he fell sick in Narayanganj Jail on April 22, Pintu was shifted to Rajshahi Jail on April 24, and, later on April 26, to Rajshahi Jail Hospital, where the authorities failed to provide the proper treatment, alleged Khaleda.