At least 10 individuals, including BNP’s executive committee member Tabith Awal, were injured in an apparent attack by ruling party activists on an opposition programme in the capital’s Banani on Saturday evening.
“Tabith has been admitted to United Hospital for treatment with a head injury,” said Nazmul Huda, his personal secretary.
Sayrul Kabir Khan, a BNP media cell member, told UNB that leaders and activists of BNP’s Dhaka North City unit were holding a candlelight vigil around 7:45pm on Kamal Atartuk Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Banani.
A similar, concurrent vigil was organised by the party’s South City unit in front of its Nayapaltan central office.
The vigil was being held to protest the price hike in fuel and daily essentials, as well as the killing of three BNP activists in police firing last month.
“Our program was slated to be held from 7pm to 8pm, on footpaths stretching from Kakoli to Gulshan-2, but AL activists blocked the road from an hour before to prevent that,” said Sayrul.
Towards the end of the programme, the activists of Awami League and its associate organisations – Chhatra League and Jubo League – suddenly attacked BNP leaders and activists with rods, brick chips and sticks, leaving at least 10 individuals injured.
Sayrul said apart from Tabith, senior leaders including standing committee member Selima Rahman, joint secretary general Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, and organising secretary Shama Obaid, also suffered injuries in the attack.
Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal said Chhatra League and Jubo League activists took up positions on the opposite side of the road before the start of the BNP programme.
BNP’s candlelight vigil in Banani attacked by ruling party activists
“When our leader Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain was concluding his speech, they attacked us suddenly. We don’t understand how they could attack a peaceful programme like this,” he said.
Contacted, Nur e Azam Miah, the OC of Banani police station, said the AL activists were “holding a rally just beside the BNP program,” from where some activists had “chased the opposition activists.”
“But we don’t have any report about any attack,” he said.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who earlier joined the vigil at Nayapaltan, visited Tabith at United Hospital later in the night.
Talking to reportersn there, Fakhrul strongly condemned the attack and demanded the immediate arrest of the offenders.
“The Awami League cadres suddenly attacked our programme in Banani, where our senior leaders including Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Selima Rahman, were present. They’re carrying out terror attacks to thwart our movement,” he said.
Earlier in the day, four individuals including BNP Vice Chairman Barkatullah Bulu and his wife, suffered injuries in an attack by miscreants at Monohorganj upazila in Cumilla, which he crossed on his way back to Dhaka from Noakhali.
Source: United News of Bangladesh