<i>One attack, several versions</i>
A group of Awami League (AL) workers beat up a leader of the Rajpara upazila unit of the party and damaged the unit's office at Laxmipur in the city on Saturday night.
At around 9:30pm, the AL workers stormed the upazila unit office, damaged furniture and beat up upazila AL organising secretary Sohel Rana, who was alone at the office that time, said police and AL men.
Sohel Rana alleged that the activists including Tushar, Sumon and Sujon made the attack as he protested their extorting the footpath traders. He also blamed the city Jubo League publicity secretary Mukul Sheikh for provoking the attackers.
When contacted, Mukul Sheikh refuted the allegation and said, Sohel's brother runs an illegal business inside a hotel at Laxmipur and the incident occurred after he scolded the attackers for refusing to pay for staying at the hotel on Friday.
A day before, Sohel had beat up the attackers when they teased a girl he (Sohel) was wooing, acting OC of Rajpara police station sub inspector Khan Md Shahriar quoted witnesses as saying.
The attack might have a link with the incident, the OC said, adding that Sohel Rana had submitted a case against three persons hours after the incident but took it away before it was recorded with the police station.
Contacted again, Sohel said, he was yet to lodge the case as the opponents and he belong to the same political party. He said he rebuked the attackers for teasing a girl on Friday. He, however, denied to have ever wooed her.
Tushar, an alleged attacker, said that they had only protested use of the office as a 'place for tender manipulation and distribution of extorted money'.
The upazila AL president Sayed Hafizur Rahman refuted the allegations of using party office for tender manipulation and distribution of extorted money'.
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