Tangail AL leader held with pistol, bullets, sent to jail

Police arrested an Awami League (AL) leader with a foreign-made pistol and four bullets in Gopalpur upazila of the district early yesterday.

The arrestee is Saiful Islam Talukder Suruj, 45, general secretary of Gopalpur upazila unit of AL.

Following post-election violence, a team of Detective Branch (DB) of police raided the AL leader's residence at Nandanpur in the upazila headquarters around 3:00am and arrested him with the 7.65mm pistol and bullets from there, said Mahfijur Rahman Ghulam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Tangail DB police.

A case under the Arms Act was filed against Suruj. He was produced before a court in Tangail that sent him to jail, the OC added.

There are nine cases against Suruj in connection with extortion and criminal activities with Gopalpur Police Station. He is a wanted accused in three of the cases, police said.

Suruj and his accomplices assaulted three cops, including a sub-inspector of the police station in September, when they tried to arrest several wanted accused.

Suruj opened fire on supporters of the rebel AL candidate during the recent union parishad elections at Chatutia and Hemnagar in the upazila, they added.

Mohammad Halimuzzaman Talukder, president of Gopalpur upazila unit of AL, said bitter infighting is going on in Gopalpur AL, and the arrest of Suruj might be connected to that.

Though there are some allegations by the public against the AL leader, he is not a person to keep illegal arms, he said.