25 injured as Sylhet BNP factions clash
Ilyas Ali's men foil rival's rally
Intra-party rivals loyal to Sylhet district BNP convener Ilyas Ali vandalise the podium in the city's Court Point area, where city BNP was scheduled to hold a rally, right, stick wielding activists chase rivals during the intra-party clashes yesterday.Photo: STAR
Twenty-five people sustained injuries as two factions of Sylhet BNP engaged in clashes in Zindabazar and Court Point areas in the city yesterday afternoon. Police charged truncheons to control the situation and arrested 20 people, said Kotwali Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Ali Bhuiyan. Most of the arrestees belong to the faction led by Sylhet district BNP convener Ilyas Ali. At about 3:20pm, activists of the group backed by district BNP convener Ilyas Ali vandalised the podium in Court Point area where BNP Sylhet city unit and a faction of district BNP organised a rally at the end of a fortnight-long anti-government agitation programme that Ilyas group had opposed from the very beginning, said party insiders. Shortly afterwards, a procession of the city unit of BNP started for the rally venue but it came under attack by intra-party rivals near Zindabazar point, witnesses said. The clashes that followed left 25 people injured and eventually foiled the rally organised by the faction led by city BNP chief Dr Shahriar Hossain Chowdhury and Joint convener Nasim Hossain, known as followers of late finance minister M Saifur Rahman. Rezaul Hasan Lodi, a ward councillor of Sylhet City Corporation, was admitted to a private hospital with head injuries. Most other injured took first aid. Two gunshots were also fired into the air during the clashes. Some agitators broke the camera of Prothom Alo photographer Anis Mahmud and took away the camera of Shabbir Foyez, a journalist of local daily Shyamol Sylhet.
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