Villagers confine police, injure four of them

Villagers beat up nine policemen and kept them confined for four hours as they failed to show warrant documents during a raid at Shibpur village in Dinajpur Sadar upazila to arrest an accused early yesterday.
Four policemen including a sub-inspector (SI) of Dinajpur police station were injured during the incident.
"A the police team of Dinajpur police station led by SI Jahangir Alam raided Moibar Rahman's house at Shibpur village in Dinajpur Sadar upazila and arrested house owner's son Mahbul Rahman, 40, at around 2:30am Thursday," Md Abdul Kaleque, ward member of Sundarpur union parishad in Dinajpur Sadar upazila quoted villagers as saying.
As the news of arrest spread in the area, the villagers surrounded the law enforcers and asked them to show warrant for Mahbul's arrest but they failed to show it.
During a wrangle that followed, the policemen hurled abuses at the villagers who got furious and beat them up.
The incident left four policemen including SI Jahangir Alam injured, sources said.
Hearing that the policemen were kept confined by villagers, police force in two vans rushed to the spot rescued their fellows yesterday morning.
When contacted, Hasan Shamim Iqbal, officer in charge (OC) of Dinajpur Kotwali police station, said the police team went to Shibpur village to arrest a wanted criminal and an arrest warrant had been issued against him in January this year.
The OC, however, declined to elaborate further about what happened during the police raid there.
Admitting the clash between policemen and villagers, Dinajpur Superintendent of Police Moinul Islam said it happened due to a misunderstanding over arrest of an accused criminal.