The BNP men attacked the LDP motorcade and people preventing them from joining an LDP rally on the Patiya Upazila Parishad premises. The attack left over 20 people injured, three of them critically.

The dead were identified as Nesar Ahmed and Shah Alam.

Witnesses said the two were knocked by a jeep of the LDP motorcade while trying to escape the attackers during the chase and counter-chase and died on the way to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital (CMCH).

Local LDP leader Mohammad Ali, also former joint organising secretary of Patiya BNP, said Nesar and Alam left the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) and joined the LDP recently.

The BNP, however, claimed that they are Patiya JCD leaders.

Addressing the rally, LDP Executive President Col (retd) Oli Ahmed later announced to file a case against former BNP lawmaker Gazi Shahjahan Jewel and JCD leader Rezaul Karim Nesar for the attacks and killing.

Oli and LDP central and local leaders were holding a meeting in Chittagong to decide on programmes to protest the incident as of filing of this report last evening.

According to witnesses, armed BNP men put up barricades on the Chittagong-Cox's Bazar Highway at Badamtali intersection in front of Shahjahan's house since 12:00 noon, hindering processions bound for the LDP rally.

They made the first attack when a motorcade, including four microbuses carrying journalists and a private car carrying LDP leader Shahadat Hossain Salim, tried to go past the barricade around 2:30pm.

Witnesses said led by Rezaul Karim Nesar, former leader of Chittagong south district unit JCD and Kusumpura Union Parishad chairman, and Hazi Shafi Islam, chairman of Ziri Union Parishad, the BNP men attacked the motorcade.

The microbuses carrying the journalists later reached the rally venue through a different way.

The BNP men also attacked and opened fire on people from west Patiya and the Port City forcing them to remain stranded at Manasha Choumuhani.

At one stage, a number of LDP men tried to move forward in a huge procession around 4:00pm, but the BNP men attacked them again that resulted in clashes between the two groups.

The clashes left over 20 people injured.

Of them, the condition of LDP activists Md Naim Chowdhury, 30, and Abu Sama, 30, and JCD activist Abdul Kader, 26, was critical and they were undergoing treatment at CMCH.

Sources said the BNP men brought Naim out of his house and cut his tendons.

LDP RALLY
Addressing the rally, Oli Ahmed called upon the people to fight against the widespread corruption, terrorism and injustice.

He said he made a great blunder by recommending Gazi Shahjahan for nomination before the 1996 elections.

Oli declared M Yakub Ali, convenor of Patiya upazila LDP, as his party's candidate from Patiya for the next election and sought vote for him.

Former state minister Ridwan Ahmed and LDP central leader Shahadat Hossain Salim also spoke at the rally presided over by Yakub Ali.