Pro-AL and BNP lawyers scuffle at SCBA iftar programme

The ruling Awami League-backed lawyers and pro-BNP lawyers locked into a scuffle at the hall of Supreme Court Bar Association this afternoon after both sides arranged iftar programmes there.

As the two groups gathered at the hall, pro-BNP members of an ad-hoc committee formed to hold a fresh SCBA election vandalised chairs and tables and tore up the banner of the association around 4:00pm, sources said.

Pro-AL lawyers resisted the BNP-backed lawyers triggering the scuffle, the sources claimed.

Both groups staged demonstrations and chanted slogans for around half an hour. The situation became normal after some of the pro-BNP lawyers left the place.

Barrister Kayser Kamal, secretary general of Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a body of pro-BNP lawyers, told The Daily Star that a volatile situation in the SCBA has been existing for the last three weeks because of the "election rigging and self-declared personnel in the organisation".

Pro-AL lawyer and SCBA Secretary Md Abdun Nur Dulal told reporters, "Lawyers backed by BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami in the name of ad-hoc committee have attacked the lawyers in order to create anarchy in the SCBA."

The two-day SCBA election was held amid police assault on lawyers and journalists and clashes between pro-AL and pro-BNP lawyers on March 15 and 16.

Pro-BNP lawyers did not cast their votes, demanding cancellation of what they said was a "farce of an election". The pro-AL lawyers' panel -- Bangabandhu Awami Ainjibi Parishad -- have won all 14 posts of the SCBA polls.

Meanwhile, a group of SCBA members have decided to hold a fresh annual election to the SCBA on June 14 and 15, saying that no election took place on March 15 and 16.