BCL men 'assault' engr for Tk 1 lakh

A group of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) men allegedly assaulted an engineer at his office at Char Bewtha in the district yesterday.

The victim is Alamgir Hossain, project in-charge of Navana Construction in the area.

The firm is building a bridge on the River Kalaiganga after the name of Ramzan Ali, former mayor of Manikganj municipality.

The engineer alleged that Samapta Hossain, former vice president of district unit of BCL, had been demanding Tk one lakh from him for the last seven days for giving reception to newly elected mayor Gazi Kamrul Huda Selim who defeated AL candidate Md Ramzan Ali in the recent municipality polls.

Samapta along with his six supporters went to the office of the engineer around 11:00am and forced his material suppliers to come out from there.

Later, they confined him to the office and demanded the money. Being refused, the BCL men started beating him mercilessly, said the victim.

On information, police rushed to the spot and rescued the engineer, said Aminur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Manikganj Sadar Police Station.

A case was filed, accusing six to seven people, including Samapta, said the OC.

Contacted, the BCL leader refuted the allegation.

Away in Thakurgaon, five local BCL men in the district have been expelled on charge of violating party discipline, reports our correspondent.

The party's central committee took the decision in an emergency meeting held at the central office in Dhaka on Saturday night, said Zakir Hossain, general secretary of central committee of BCL.

They were expelled for violating party discipline, he said.

The expelled BCL activists are GM Siraji Mizan, Sourav Chandra Das, Khalid Siraj Roki, Mahbub Alam and Saddam Hossain.