UP Poll Violence
BNP man dies in gunfight with cops, hartal today
A man was killed and 10 others were injured during an exchange of fire between supporters of a BNP backed chairman candidate and law enforcers in Bera upazila of Pabna early yesterday.
Police recovered the bullet-hit body of Osman Goni Gama, 40, a BNP supporter from Haturia village around noon yesterday, Officer-in-Charge of Bera Police Station Sheikh Zillur Rahman told The Daily Star.
The BNP-backed candidate's supporters also beat up four policemen during the incident, police said.
Pabna Superintendent of Police (SP) Jahangir Hossain Matabbar told The Daily Star that the altercation occurred over the results of the local chairman election. Supporters of Chand Pramanik, chairman candidate from Haturia Nakalia union backed by BNP, approached the presiding officer late Tuesday night asking for the documents declaring the win of their candidate. The win of the candidate had verbally been announced by then.
The supporters got agitated when they were told that the process would take time and the returning officer would do it. As unrest grew, the authority decided to take the ballot boxes from the polling centre to the control room in the Bera TNO's office for security reasons. The agitating crowd would not allow them to do so, alleging the ballot papers would be "stolen".
The men put up a barricade on the road and tried to snatch the ballot boxes from the authority. They also attacked the four policemen escorting the polling authority transferring the boxes.
A team of police led by the SP of Bera Police Station was called to the spot after which the unruly BNP men opened fire on the law enforcers prompting them to fire back, said the SP. The firing left one man dead on the spot.
Following the incident, police in a dawn raid yesterday picked up 10 people including presiding officer of Haturia Jagannathpur Dugdho Samobai Samity centre Abdul Hamin and polling officer Kabirul Islam for involvement in the shooting. They were taken in for interrogation.
Meanwhile, the upazila BNP unit yesterday called a half-day hartal today in protest at the killing of the BNP supporter.
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