LOOKEAST REPORT |
Police vehicles have been set on fire by BNP activists in Naya Paltan during a clash with the cops.
Also, BNP supporters and police fought running battles in front of the party’s headquarters.
■ Unruly BNP activists
TV footage showed a group of men vandalising a police pickup van and a patrol car before torching them on Wednesday afternoon.
Hundreds of BNP leaders and activists thronged to their headquarters in the morning — as the party is selling nomination forms for the December 30 election.
A BNP activist claimed police attacked them, unprovoked, when the party’s Standing Committee Member, Mirza Abbas, came to collect his nomination form.
“This triggered the clash,” said a man who identified himself as Saikat.
BNP activists hurled pieces of brick at police — who responded by firing teargas canisters and rubber bullets.
Police and stick–wielding BNP activists have taken up positions on two ends of the street.
A BNP activist claimed police attacked them, unprovoked, when the party’s Standing Committee Member, Mirza Abbas, came to collect his nomination form — this triggered the clash, said a man who identified himself as Saikat
‘Premeditated attack on police’
Police say BNP activists attacked them first, for no apparent reason.
“They hurled chunks of bricks at us and went on to torch two of our vehicles — and tried to set fire to one of our APCs. We responded in self–defence,” said Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Commissioner (Motijheel division) Anwar Hossain.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the BNP had provoked clashes in a pre–meditated conspiracy to disrupt the polls. ■
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