Feuding teachers lose office to police

Police, ordered by the Mayor, have taken control of the Shikhkhok Bhaban which housed the regional office of Bangladesh Teachers Association after its two factions fought and staged a drama of capture and re-capture.

On October 12, a group of teachers belonging to the Awal-Bakar faction, locally led by Ashish Das Gupta and Jahangir Alam, occupied the building at Fakir Bari road after ousting their rivals belonging to the Kamruzzaman faction.

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The Kamruzzaman faction is led by Santosh Mukherjee and Siddikur Rahman here.

Leaders of the ousted faction later claimed that during the occupation, their rivals beat some of their colleagues, ransacked the office and looted Tk 50,000 of the teachers' welfare fund kept here.

On October 13, police ousted the Awal-Bakar group and took control of the building.

On October 15 morning, the Kamruzzaman group took control of the office from police.

The Awal-Bakar group then met Mayor Majibur Rahman Sarwar MP and told him that the office belonged to them as the Santosh-Siddik group (Kamruzzaman faction) was expelled from the association for corruption and irregularities.

The mayor ordered police to take control of the building by ousting both the factions and said possession of the office would be settled after examining papers.

At about noon on Wednesday, when the Kamaruzzaman faction was preparing for a press conference at the office to announce its possession, police drove them out. They left the building silently.