AL, JP men unleash allack for refusing to include them

19 October 2009, 17:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Nilphamari

Awami League (AL) and Jatiya Party (JP) activists yesterday foiled a meeting of fertiliser retailers selection committee in Mirganj Union under Jaldhaka upazila and assaulted the members of the committee. Sources said the committee sat in a meeting in the union parishad hall room with Chairman Mir Hamidul Ehsan Chanu in the chair at around 11:00am to select four candidates for appointment as fertiliser retailers in the union. When the members of the committee were sorting applications in presence of 27 intending retailers and councillors, some AL and JP activists entered the room and asked the committee chairman to stop the selection process and include the names of their party leaders in the committee. They claimed they are the supporters of local lawmaker from JP Kazi Farook Kader and upazila AL Secretary Shahid Hossain Rubel. So names of their men must be included in the committee. As the committee members continued meeting ignoring the demand of AL and JP activists, they became angry and swooped on the committee members, councillors and other participants, leaving at least 15 injured. The attackers also ransacked the union parishad office and set fire to three model sanitary latrines in front of the UP office. Mirganj UP councillors Jahangir Alam, Azizul Islam and Haider Ali said chairman Mir Hamidul Ehsan Chanu, some members of the selection committee and UP office peon received injuries during the attack. When contacted, Chairman Mir Hamidul Ehsan Chanu told newsmen that local lawmaker, not he formed the selection committee according to a circular issued by the agriculture department. He alleged that the unruly activists of AL and JP, led by Riju Khan, Selim Khan, and Tabibar Rahman Bhoda, attacked them and foiled the meeting of the committee. “We are preparing to file a case against the attackers,” he added.