AL men clash in presence of law minister

At least 20 people were injured in Brahmanbaria's Kasba yesterday as two groups of ruling Awami League activists clashed in a programme where Law Minister Anisul Huq was present.

The supporters of Kasba municipality mayor and those of a mayoral aspirant attacked each other over establishing dominance.

Twelve motorcycles and some establishments were also vandalised during the clash, which broke out around 11:00am.

Police and witnesses said the local administration organised an event for distributing smart NID cards at Kasba upazila parishad auditorium.

The programme was scheduled to start at 11:00 where Law Minister Anisul Huq, also the local lawmaker, was the chief guest.

Kasba municipality Mayor Emran Uddin Jewel, also a former president of the upazila unit Chhatra League, along with his supporters joined the event around 11:00am.

At the same time, upazila unit Jubo League President MA Aziz, who is a mayoral aspirant of the municipality, went there accompanied by his followers.

There had been a long-standing political rivalry between Jewel and Aziz. Now both of them are trying to get party's nomination to run for the mayoral post in the upcoming Kasba municipality election.

At one stage, the supporters of two groups were locked in an altercation and then attacked each other, said witnesses.

Around 30 minutes later, the law minister reached the venue. The clash stopped for a while due to interference of the minister.

Then the programme was going on as per schedule. A few moments later, both the groups got locked in clash again in presence of the minister.

The minister then left the venue in police protection and went to his village home Paniarup in the same upazila.

Both the groups threw chairs and brick chips at each other and vandalise 12 motorbikes and other establishments, said locals.

Four of the motorcycles were set on fire. 

On information, police rushed to the spot, lobbed teargas shells and charged truncheons on the clashing groups to bring the situation under control, said Alamgir Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of Kasba Police Station.

Additional law enforcers were deployed in the area to fend off further untoward incident, he said.

No case was filed and no one was arrested till filing of the report around 7:00pm.

Alleging that his supporters were attacked by his rival group, Aziz said he would file a case in this connection.

This correspondent could not communicate with Kasba municipality mayor Jewel for his comments.