Police clash with BNP leaders and activists at Chandrima Udyan

BNP leaders and activists clashed with police at Chandrima Udyan in the city. The incident took place at around 11:00am today, Tuesday. Several leaders and activists were injured in the clashes, said BNP. The police report that 8 to 10 of their members were injured.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir arrived at the spot after the clashes. He, along with the leaders and activists of the party, then laid wreathes at Ziaur Rahman's grave.

The BNP men said that a programme had been pre-scheduled for the leaders of the newly formed committee of Dhaka City North and South BNP to pay respects at the BNP founder Ziaur Rahman grave. They had gathered there accordingly. However, the police said that BNP hadn't taken permission for the programme there.

Certain leaders of BNP said that at around 10:45am, the member secretary of BNP City (North) committee and former national team footballer Aminul Huq and others arrived at Chandrima Udyan. When the police obstructed them from entering, Aminul got into an argument with the police.

At open point the police began assaulting them and opened fire with teargas shells. The BNP men said that the police also fired rubber bullets at them.

When a call was made to Aminul on his mobile phone, a person named Kibria answered the call. He said that Aminul had been injured with rubber bullets and that several others of the party men had been injured too.

Speaking about the incident, officer-in-charge (OC) of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station Jan-e-Alam Munshi told Prothom Alo, the situation had been normal. The BNP leaders and activists had come to pay their respects there in the past and there had been no problem. But today (Tuesday) some unruly followers of Amanullah Aman disrupted the situation and confronted the police aggressively. Around 8 to 10 members of the police were injured in the incident.

BNP chairperson's adviser Amanullah Aman told Prothom Alo, the programme had been pre-scheduled and that was why the leaders and activists had come to Ziaur Rahman's grave.

Police aggressively obstructed their entrance upon seeing so many of them, he said, and needlessly fired teargas shells and rubber bullets. Aminul Huq was injured by the rubber bullets.