Villagers attack police camp in Chuadanga, 40 injured
At least 40 people including five policemen were injured as a group of villagers and madrasa students attacked a police camp at Lakmipur village in Damurhuda upazila of Chuadanga district over collecting money for an Islami jalsa (religious function) Friday night.
The authorities of Lakmipur Darus Sunnah Cadet Madrasa employed its students and a few local youths to collect money for the jalsa to be held at its ground scheduled for today, said police and locals.
They continued collecting money from passers-by and commuters near Bhagirathpur bridge of the village, blocking the road for last three days.
They stopped police constable Jewel Mia of Lakmipur police camp when he was crossing the spot on a motorbike at about 5:30pm on Friday.
They manhandled the police constable when he tried to leave the spot without giving any money for the purpose, Sub-Inspector Rabiul Islam, in-charge of the police camp, quoted constable Jewel Mia as saying.
The constable returned to the camp and informed camp in-charge Rabiul of the matter.
Rabiul sent a police team there but the toll collectors engaged in a further chaos with the team.
Then police team arrested four toll takers and brought them to the camp, said Rabiul.
A local union parishad (UP) member, also an alleged Jamaat activist, went to the police camp to free the arrestees but failed, said Liton Khan, a businessman of the village.
"As the UP member propagated that police was beating the arrestees at the police camp, madrasa Superintendent Abdul Awal called upon the villagers through loudspeaker, to come forward to rescue the arrestees from the police camp,” he said.
Then around 150-200 villagers allegedly led by three Islami Chhatra Shibir activists attacked the police camp and started vandalising there with brickbats and bamboo sticks around 8:30pm, Liton said.
Failing to prevent them, police opened fire, said camp in-charge Rabiul.
The clash continuing around half an hour left 40 people including five policemen injured.
Five of the injured were bullet-hit ones.
On information, additional police force from Damurhuda Police Station led by Officer in Charge Kamruzzaman rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.
The bullet-hit people -- Milon Ali, 26, Humayun Kabir, 18, Selim Uddin, 17, Sadhin Ali, 17, and Abdul Hamid, 40, of the same village are undergoing treatment at Chuadanga Sadar Hospital.
At around 9:30pm, police and local administration officials held a meeting with the villagers.
“We reached a peaceful settlement after the incident that occurred due to a misunderstanding. The situation is under control,” said Chuadanga Superintendent of Police Rashidul Hasan.
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