Sramik League runs amok in Sreepur
Vehicular movement on a half a kilometre stretch between Mawna Chowrasta and Peyar Ali College in Sreepur upazila of Gazipur district was suspended for around four hours yesterday during a factional clash of Sramik League over “running” a human hauler stand.
Wielding bamboo and hockey sticks and throwing brick chips at each other, some 100 activists of the ruling Awami League's (AL) front organisation for labourers engaged in sporadic clashes till 12:30pm when police arrived and dispersed them.
Locals fled in panic while the camera of a local journalist, Shihab Khan, was snatched only to be returned later.
Witnesses said one group led by Mujibur Rahman, general secretary of the organisation's Sreepur unit, took position on the eastern side of the stand in Mawna while the other led by Liton Fakir, an executive member, on the west.
Talking to The Daily Star, Mujibur and Liton made contradictory claims, each stating that it was him that local AL leaders asked to “ensure proper running of the stand for they were local transport workers”.
Locals and transport workers, requesting anonymity fearing retribution, informed that the “running of the stand” was a ploy to extort money from them, something both the leaders denied.
The unit AL President Advocate Shamsul Alam Pradhan denied telling anyone to look after the stand. He also refuted locals' claims that it was AL leaders of the lower tiers giving out the orders to the Sramik League men.
Sreepur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mohsinul Kadir said they had been trying to control the situation since morning.
Sreepur Assistant Commissioner (Land) Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan visited the spot and asked law enforcers to arrest extortionists and ensure normalcy.
On September 22, Kabir Khandaker, one of Liton's followers, was injured in an attack over the same issue.
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