An entire village in Rajshahi's Tanore upazila has been paying a heavy price since Sunday's general elections, when majority of the villagers voted for the BNP candidate. 

The village, Kolma, falls under Rajshahi-1 constituency and has 2,435 voters. Kolma Government Primary School was their voting centre.     

In the election, the total vote cast at the centre was 1,914 -- five of which were cancelled. Of the 1,909 valid votes, 1,249 went to BNP candidate Aminul Haque and 653 to AL candidate Omor Faruk Chowdhury.      

On Monday morning, stick-wielding Awami League men took position at the two entry points of the village -- at Billi and Dargadanga intersections -- and barred all types of vehicular movement on the road through the village. Even bicycles and rickshaw-vans are not being allowed to pass through the points, villagers have alleged.

The AL men also captured the deep tube-wells used for irrigation and snapped satellite television connections to households, they added.

“They are not sparing even the Awami League men. They confined us all,” said a villager, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing reprisal.

The villagers, including a senior AL leader, blamed Kolma Union Parishad Chairman Lutfor Haider Rashid and young members of the party for the situation.

Lutfor denied his involvement in the siege, and claimed people were not coming out of their village fearing attacks by BNP men.

“Buses are avoiding the route for the same reason,” he claimed.   

Things turned a little tense in the village the day before the election, locals said.

On Saturday afternoon, some AL men armed with hockey sticks damaged the tin wall of the house of Union Parishad Member Shafiqul Islam, known as a BNP man.

In retaliation, BNP supporters chased Lutfor Haider, who was sitting at a tea stall, and beat up some of his supporters in the evening.

Locals alleged Lutfor's men were “punishing” them for Saturday's incident and also because most people there voted for the BNP candidate, although he eventually lost.

Because of the siege, locals are not even sending their children to schools, they claimed.

On Wednesday, two brothers from the village -- both school teachers -- were beaten up when they were returning home on a bike.

This correspondent met one of them yesterday afternoon.

“It was our internal matter. I have nothing to complain,” he said and quickly left. He requested not to publish his name.

At 5:00pm yesterday, this correspondent saw a passenger bus avoid its route through the village. Instead, it took the road that runs through neighbouring Korchor village.

“The situation is normal,” claimed Ataur Rahman, an AL worker.

He said normalcy returned yesterday morning when the additional superintendent of police and the Tanore UNO visited the village and assured locals of security.

But villagers said they had no confidence in such assurances.

“Road communication has not restored and irrigation machines still remain captured [by the AL men],” said a businessman, asking not to be named.

Additional SP Motiur Rahman Siddiki told The Daily Star that local AL men were indeed keeping the people confined, but over “Saturday's attack and counter-attack”.

“The village is dominated by the BNP and there is a tension between the two groups [AL and BNP],” he said, adding that they asked both groups to show restraint.

Contacted, lawmaker Omor Faruk said the siege had nothing to do with AL and BNP supporters of Kolma village.

“It's an issue between locals in Kolma and its surrounding villages,” he claimed.

He also took credit for “avoiding a bloodshed” in the area, but did not explain how.

The lawmaker then went on to blame police for not arresting those who attacked AL men on Saturday evening, but made no mention of the attack by “AL men”.    

“The situation would not have arisen, had they [police] arrested those responsible for attacking my people that night,” he said.

Rajshahi deputy commissioner and the police superintendent are expected to visit the area today.