Faridpur violence: Fearing arrest, most Saltha men flee their villages

Almost all the men in 70 villages of Faridpur's Saltha have gone into hiding following cases filed in connection with violence on April 5 in the area.  

Tension is running high as police have been carrying out drives to arrest people involved in the attacks on different government offices and infrastructures. 

While those who were involved in the incident have fled to escape arrest, the ones who had nothing to do with it are also running away to avoid harassment. 

Five cases have been filed so far over the violence in Saltha against 261 named suspects and 16,800 unnamed persons.  

As there are no men in the villages, crops of thousands of hectares of land remain unharvested and are being allowed to rot in the fields. 

Women in the villages were seen selling daily necessities including onions and jute at Saltha Bazar on Sunday morning. 

Salma Begum, who came to sell onions at the market, said: "There are no male members in the house. Everyone has fled since that incident." 

Only women and children were seen in 70 out of 109 villages of Saltha. 

Md Alimuzzaman, superintendent of police in Faridpur, said, "Those who were not involved in the incident have no reason to run away from their houses. Police are not harassing anyone." 

"Only those who were involved in the incident are being arrested based on specific information," the SP said.

Two men were killed and 20 others, including eight members of the law enforcement agencies, were injured in Saltha violence. 

Faridpur Additional Superintendent of Police, Jamal Pasha, said, "A total of 61 people have been arrested so far over the Saltha incident. One of them, Miran Mollah (35), died while undergoing treatment in Dhaka." 

Rumours of killing and arrests triggered violent clashes between police and locals in Saltha on the first day of government imposed restrictions. The violence saw thousands of people vandalising and torching government establishments.