Ballot Stuffing Attempt: 2 Star reporters cornered for bearing witness

Around 1:50pm, a group of youths were seen forming an orderly queue to enter the polling centre in Segunbagicha High School under Dhaka-8 constituency to cast their votes.

But their plan came undone when one of their associates was turned away from voting.

The youth was carrying a voting slip against which the vote had already been cast. And his face did not match with the slip.

He then attempted to flee the scene when one of the correspondents stopped him to enquire why he could not cast his vote. The youth ignored the correspondent and hurriedly ran away.

The correspondents followed the youth outside. He reunited with his associates, all aged between 15-35 and with badges of the Awami League's symbol boat.

The group was sending five to six youths to the polling booths at a time to cast votes although they were not actual voters. Around 2:00pm, they were seen stepping into another centre that was located just metres away.

At that centre too, their plan was thwarted. This time, it was the centre's presiding officer Md Raihul Karim who stopped them as one of the youths looked suspiciously under-age. Karim handed the youth to the police officer stationed at the centre.

On seeing this, the other youths fled the scene.

It is at this point that the situation escalated for the correspondents.

The youths were hurling abuses at the correspondents and blamed them for their plan coming undone.

"Why don't you come out? Get out soon -- we are waiting. We will show you who we are."

The correspondents informed the presiding officer and sought his help to leave the centre safely. The presiding officer said he could not do much as he had just one police officer at the centre.

Finally, around 2:40pm, the correspondents attempted to leave the centre with the help of another reporter. However, they were caught by some 20-25 youths at the centre's gate.

The mob started hurling abuses and then surrounded the reporters. They grabbed the reporters' phones and deleted the footage and photos taken of the youths' misadventure at the voting centres.

After deleting the video, they demanded the release of the youth caught attempting to cast fake votes. They claimed that he was held solely because of the two reporters.

At one point, they started shoving the reporters and yelling at them. "We will not release you unless you free our man."

Though the whole incident occurred in front of the law enforcers, they did not take any action.

As the situation worsened, the reporters returned to the centre and sought the presiding officer's help again.

The correspondents waited at the office of the presiding officer, who then sought police reinforcements. 

While the correspondents waited, two different youths came up and, in the presence of the presiding officer, said: "If you can release our man, we will help you to leave the centre."

At 3:05pm, the correspondents finally managed to leave the polling centre under additional police protection.