Jamaat men clash with cops again

At least 57 people, including 29 police personnel, were injured in clashes between Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir activists and law enforcers in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Chandpur and Noakhali yesterday.
Yesterday was the third day in less than a week that the Islamist party men fought with cops across the country over the release of their top leaders, including the nine detained on war crimes charges.
Earlier on Monday and Tuesday, more than 300 people, including 140 policemen and two journalists, were hurt in similar clashes in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.
In the capital's Mirpur yesterday, the Jamaat-Shibir men brought out a procession demanding the release of their leaders at around 4:30pm. They suddenly started pelting running vehicles with brickbats, said Ataur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Kafrul Police Station.
He added that 10 people, two of them policemen, were wounded when the Jamaat-Shibir activists threw bricks at them. Police detained seven Jamaat-Shibir men from Mirpur and Kafrul for assaulting the law enforcers.
In Rajshahi, at least 20 people, including five policemen, were injured when Shibir men clashed with police in the town yesterday evening. Police arrested 10 Shibir activists from the scene.
The clash began when the law enforcers intercepted a procession of about 200 Shibir activists at Jhawtala intersection around 5:30pm, reports our district correspondent.
The demonstrators threw brickbats at the police, who fired around 200 teargas canisters to disperse the agitators.
Our Noakhali correspondent reports: 17 people, including a police sub-inspector, three constables and a local journalist, were hurt in pitched battles between Shibir and police at Godown Road area yesterday.
The injured sub-inspector Shahadat and constables Rubel Das, Tarek and Ajoy were admitted to Laxmipur Sadar Hospital.
Police picked up three people from the spot.
In Chandpur, 10 people, three of them police personnel, were injured when the Jamaat-Shibir men locked themselves in a clash in the district's bus stand area.
Police detained nine people in this connection, reports our district correspondent.
Amir Zafar, acting superintendent of Chandpur police, said the Jamaat-Shibir activists suddenly swooped on the law enforcers without any provocation.
In Sylhet, police fired 30 teargas shells to calm the situation after a clash with Shibir activists.
Witnesses said several hundred Shibir activists brought out a procession carrying bamboo sticks from the city's Rajargoli area at 4:30pm.
A running battle began when police intercepted the procession at Housing Estate area, reports our district correspondent.
AB Barua, Sylhet Metropolitan Police commissioner, said the law enforcers stopped the procession as the organisers had not obtained permission for the procession.
The "unruly activists" threw brickbats at the police, he added.
At least 15 policemen were injured in the clash, said Rezaul Karim, deputy police commissioner of Sylhet.
Police picked up about 20 people from the area, he added.