Cops, BNP attack AL activists

Police and BNP activists yesterday attacked leaders and activists of the Awami League (AL) and its front organisations in the capital and elsewhere on their way to attend a party rally at Paltan Maidan, leaving about 60 injured.

Police fired blank shots and clubbed AL leaders and activists at Nababganj in Dhaka district. The AL adherents turned violent and damaged four vehicles after police stopped seven buses carrying them to the capital.

At least 50 AL leaders and activists were injured in the police action.

AL sources said party men boarding 50 buses were coming to the city to join the Paltan rally. A team of Nababganj police stopped seven of the buses at Digherpar, Komorganj, Barahnagar and Tikarpur, leading to the trouble.

In Gournadi ,four leaders of Jubo League and Chhatra League were wounded when workers of ruling BNP's youth front Jubo Dal and student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal beat them on Tuesday night on their way to Dhaka. The attackers also snatched money from them, our Barisal Correspondent reports.

Jobu Dal and Chhatra Dal leaders raided a launch carrying the AL adherents at Kayaria terminal at about 8:00pm and beat them.

A report from Mirzapur in Tangail said Jubo League leaders and activists barricaded the Dhaka-Tangail highway for half an hour after police stopped two buses, carrying them from Natore, at Mirzapur for three hours from 11:00am yesterday.

Sources said police stopped the buses on the plea that they did not have required papers. But in the face of demonstrations by the activists, police allowed the buses to leave at about 2:15pm.

In the city, police charged batons on an AL procession in front of the Jatiya Press Club yesterday, witnesses said.

Police went into action as AL supporters tried to march forward breaking a police barricade at about 3:50pm in the afternoon. They were later allowed to pass through a narrow passage in the barricade.