First meet foiled amid brawl

A faction of Barisal city BNP yesterday foiled the first meeting of the newly formed convening committee of the city unit and assaulted their party rivals.
The meeting was convened at the residence of Mahmud Golam Salek, convener of the city BNP, at Kali Bari Road in the morning to form an extended 51-member convening committee of the unit.
BNP central committee on June 9 declared a seven-member convening body of Barisal city unit with Golam Salek as convenor and six others, including former city BNP general secretary Asaduzzaman Khasru, as joint convenors.
But the party high command later dropped the name of Khasru from the list of convenors and directed the city unit to form an extended 51-member convening committee.
As per directive of the party high command, the new convening committee sat in a closed-door meeting at around 11:45 with Mahmud Golam Salek in the chair.
When the meeting was going on, the aggrieved BNP men, led by Altaf Mahmud Shikdar, Panel mayor of Barisal City Corporation (BCC), Giasuddin Babul Molla, Mir Zahidul Karim Zahid, ANM Saiful Hassan Azim, BCC councillors ATM Shahidullah Kabir, stormed into the meeting venue demanding inclusion of Khasru in the convening committee. They engaged in altercation with the attending leaders and assaulted them.
In the face of strong resistance by party rivals, new convenor Golam Salek cancelled the meeting.
Khasru's supporters then took out a procession in the city demanding cancellation of the new convening committee.
Golam Salek told reporters that the meeting was called to extend the convening committee in presence of six joint convenors but cancelled due to an unexpected situation created by some unruly activists.