Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 909 Sun. December 17, 2006  
   
Front Page


80 hurt as parties clash on V-day


At least 80 people were injured as BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir activists clashed with Awami League (AL) and its student front Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men in Chittagong, Moulvibazar, Mymensingh and Pabna during Victory Day celebrations yesterday.

Trouble in port city Chittagong that left 12 people injured began when BNP leaders and workers entered the Shaheed Minar premises through the exit, ignoring request of the on-duty security personnel.

City Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, who first placed wreaths there at midnight, also requested the BNP leaders and workers to enter the premises through the designated

entrance and place wreaths, reports UNB.

The BNP men left the scene without placing wreaths to come back at around 1:00am through the exit, witnesses said.

As the rival political activists started shouting angry slogans, the mayor took the microphone and tried to quell the situation.

But BNP leader Abdullah Al Noman took away the microphone from the mayor and started delivering a 'political speech'.

Angry supporters of the two parties threw brickbats and shoes at each other after a chase and counter chase, prompting police and Bangladesh Rifles personnel to charge baton on the feuding groups.

Twelve people were wounded during the incident.

MOULVIBAZAR
Fifty people were injured in a clash between the activists of AL and Jamaat yesterday afternoon, reports our correspondent.

AL was holding a Victory Day gathering in front of the AL office after a procession in Baralekha upazila when participants in a Jamaat procession, brought out in observance of the Victory Day, allegedly threw brickbats at them.

The ensuing clash left 50 people injured while several shops owned by AL supporters were damaged and five motorcycles of Jamaat supporters were burnt.

Police fired rubber bullets to bring the situation under control.

MYMENSINGH
At least 10 people were injured in a clash between the activists of BCL and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) on the Bangladesh Agricultural University campus yesterday morning, reports our correspondent.

As the BCL and JCD men were going to the campus to place floral wreaths at Bijoy '71, a Liberation War memorial, at around 10:30am, the two groups got locked in a clash, sources said.

Three of the injured were rushed to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital.

The agitating students ransacked the offices of the provost and house tutors and broke the windowpanes of some 30 rooms of Isha Khan Hall and Shaheed Jamal Hossain Hall.

An uneasy situation is prevailing on the campus as the BCL, JCD and Chhatra Shibir have taken positions.

Additional police have been deployed on the campus.

PABNA
A clash between the AL and Jamaat activists left 10 people injured in the town yesterday afternoon.

The clash erupted at around 1:00pm when AL activists damaged a Bijoy Mancha (victory stage) that Jamaat men erected on a road at Doel Chattar, reports UNB.