Since the incident, many activists of the AL and its front organisations have fled their houses, fearing arrest in a case filed by Ratan against 17 activists of Jubo League and Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) for the alleged attack.

Ratan said some BCL and Jubo League workers attacked him in front of a local cinema hall at around 9:00pm Tuesday when he was returning to his house after attending a party programme. He alleged that the attackers stabbed him after the beating.

AKM Ahsanul Taiyab Zakir, president of Sonatola upazila BNP unit, however, denied the involvement of his activists in vandalising and setting fire to the AL office. He rather blamed the BCL and Jubo League workers for the attack on Ratan.

President of Sonatola AL unit Nurul Anwar Badshah, however, termed the attack on Ratan as "fake". He alleged that the Jubo Dal leaders beat up AL worker, Abdul Mumin, while setting fire to the AL office.

Police yesterday arrested Convenor of Sonatola upazila Jubo League Masum Morshed and another leader, Saiful Islam, in connection with the attack on Ratan.

In another incident, the local AL leaders accused 106 local BNP workers for attacking and setting fire to the AL office at Sariakandi in Bogra Saturday night.

Sariakandi upazila AL leaders Shahjahan-ul-Alam, Abul Kalam Azad and Pilu Momtaz filed three separate cases with the magistrate court.

The accused include upazila BNP Convenor Rafiqul Islam, Joint Convenor Rabiul Islam Faruq, Tosadek Hossain Bulu and acting president of municipal BNP Abdul Wares.