At least 25 people were injured as police went on action to disperse the demonstrators. Five police were also injured as the demonstrators threw brickbats at them. The injured police were later discharged from Chittagong Medical College Hospital after first aid.

Sources said a team of police from Panchlaish PS arrested Ali Akkas, general secretary of Chattagram Mohanagar Chhinnamul Bostibashi Samonnoy Sangram Parishad around 11:00am yesterday from his workplace in the city's Sholoshahar area. They also arrested a class IV employee of Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI). The arrests were made following a request from Bayezid Bostami PS of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP).

As the news of arrests reached the slums at Silimpur in Sitakunda, the residents there became agitated and set out for the city to free their leader from police custody. Equipped with bamboo sticks and lathis over two hundred people of Silimpur Slum arrived in front of Panchlaish PS and laid a siege there. At one stage, they started throwing brickbats at the PS breaking a few windowpanes.

The demonstrators were, however, dispersed when police charged batons on them. About 25 persons, five of them women, were injured in the clash.

None was arrested in this connection.

Akkas, known as a notorious landgrabber, is an accused in about 15 criminal cases in different police stations in the city and Sitakunda upazila, police said.

Sources said Akkas maintains a close link with a faction of the ruling BNP.

"Using this political leverage, Akkas has long been involved in many criminal activities, especially in grabbing khas lands and establishing slums on those lands. Silimpur Slum is now under his control," said a source.

Akkas was sent to jail by a court yesterday after police produced him before it.