Joint forces yesterday arrested seven men on charges of involvement in the killing of lawyer Saiful Islam, who was fatally hacked in the Chattogram Court Building area on Tuesday.

Law enforcers also arrested at least 21 others on suspicion of attack on police, damage to property, and battery on the court premises.

In the afternoon, hundreds of people gathered at Tigerpass intersection of the port city and demanded justice for Saiful, who was killed during clashes between police, lawyers, and followers of former ISKCON leader Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari.

The men arrested over the murder are Rumit Das, Sonu Mathor, Aman Das, Sumit Das, Gogon Das, Nayon Das and Bishal Das, said Assistant Deputy Commissioner Tarek Aziz of Chattogram Metropolitan Police.

The joint forces arrested the suspects, aged between 20 and 30, in overnight raids on Mathor Potti, Bundle Road, which is not far from the place where assailants attacked Saiful with sharp weapons, he added.

Police filed three cases in connection with Tuesday's violence. A total of 79 named and 1,400 unnamed individuals were accused in the cases, he added.

A Chattogram court sent 27 of the arrestees to jail around 5:30pm, said CMP Additional Deputy Commissioner Mafiz Uddin.

Police said teams were looking for the other suspects.

In a 26-second video that went viral on social media on Tuesday night, a man, who locals identify as Saiful, was seen lying on the road, and 30 to 40 men were seen attacking him with sharp weapons and sticks.

One of them, Rajib Bhattacharya, was held by the Detective Branch last night, said Deputy Commissioner Rais Uddin.

Meanwhile, fear gripped both Muslim and Hindu residents of neighbourhoods near the Court Building, where large numbers of army, border guards, and law enforcers were deployed.

Locals said some shanties of Hindu cleaners were burnt down and two temples were vandalised on Tuesday night.

Several windows of Niloy Sajan, the building near which the assailants attacked Saiful, were broken.

A local named Mahbub said somebody broke the security camera of the building, and police took the storage device at night.

Manik Kumar Das, a cleaner of Chattogram City Corporation, said, "I was outside the area on Tuesday. I heard later that a group of young men from our colony clashed with police. At night, there were police in the area. We don't know who vandalised the temples at night."

Another resident named Sujan Dey said, "After the attacks on houses at night, many of us went to our friends and relatives' houses outside the area and slept there to save our lives."

PROTESTS

Lawyers were on strike yesterday, halting all proceedings at the 74 courts in Chattogram, protesting the murder.

The strike will go on today, according to Ashraf Hossen Chowdhury Razzak, secretary of Chattogram Bar Association.

Yesterday morning, lawyers demonstrated on the court premises and demanded immediate arrest of the killers. Saiful's body was brought there and a first Namaj-e-Janaza was held around 10:30am.

AF Hasan Arif, land ministry adviser; Hasnat Abdullah, convener of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement; Tofayel Ahmed, Chattogram divisional commissioner; BNP's Chattogram City Convener Ershad Ullah, Member Secretary Nazimur Rahman; Jamaat's Chattogram City Ameer Shahjahan Chowdhury and Secretary General Nurul Amin attended the janaza.

Near midday, a group of people ransacked the office of the clerks' association on the court premises and set it on fire, said the association's President Shamsul Islam.

A lawyer named Firozul Islam Talukdar said people attacked the office because there were allegations that some clerks on Tuesday helped the attackers.

The association president refused to comment about the allegation.

The Chief Adviser's Office in a statement in the afternoon said police arrested at least six people in connection with the murder after identifying them in the video.

Besides, six members of the Awami League and now-outlawed Chhatra League were arrested in possession of crude bombs in the port city.