2 gun-toting BCL leaders expelled

Chhatra League has expelled two leaders over brandishing firearms during a hawker eviction drive in the capital's Gulistan on Thursday.

The two are general secretaries of BCL Dhaka south and Wari thana units Md Sabbir Hossain and Md Ashiqur Rahman.

The central executive committee of the pro-Awami League student front took the decision at an emergency meeting on Sunday night. The leaders were expelled for breaching organisational discipline, said a press release.

On October 27, several Bangla dailies published photographs showing Sabbir and Ashiqur brandishing firearms during a clash between hawkers and an eviction team of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).

The clash broke out after the DSCC team launched the drive to remove illegal makeshift shops from pavements and the underpass market area in Gulistan.

OC Rafiqul Islam of Paltan Police Station said magistrates of the city corporation along with a mobile court went there to conduct the drive. But they didn't have police with them.

Hawkers alleged that some BCL men accompanying the DSCC officials fired blank shots to drive them away.