Some activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal locked into a clash with police in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office on Thursday over foiling a discussion programme of the student body in Mymensingh.
At least 14 people, including four police members, were injured in the clash while five JCD activists were arrested.
Witnesses said a group of JCD activists brought out a procession around 5pm in front of the BNP office protesting a reported attack on their discussion programme in Mymensingh.
As the procession was marching towards Nightingale crossing, police obstructed it, triggering a clash between the law enforcers and the JCD activists.
At one stage, police charged batons on the JCD men who also retaliated with brickbats and sticks, leaving an unspecified number of people injured.
Contacted, Abdul Ahad, deputy commissioner (Motijheel division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the JCD activists attacked police from a procession in front of the BNP office, leaving four of them injured.
He said police also charged batons and brought the situation under control.
Ahad said five people were arrested from the spot in this connection.
BNP organising secretary Syed Imran Saleh Prince said JCD central leaders went to Mymensingh to join a discussion programme there in the morning, but police attacked them and foiled the programme.
He said some JCD men brought out a procession at Nayapaltan protesting that incident, but police attacked them here too without any provocation, leaving 10 activists of their student body.
Besides, Prince said, around 10 JCD leaders and activists, including former JCD central general secretary Habibur Rashid Habib and current general secretary Iqbal Hossain Shyamol, were injured and many others arrested.
Meanwhile, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir strongly condemned the two incidents, saying the government has turned Bangladesh into a “police state”.
In a statement, he demanded immediate release of those arrested both in Dhaka and Mymensingh.
Source: United News of Bangladesh