Attempt to create chaos in front of Prothom Alo office, joint force disperses troublemakers

A group of people tried to create chaos by taking position on the road in front of the Prothom Alo office in the city’s Karwan Bazar area for the whole day on Sunday.

This created an obstacle to vehicular movement at Karwan Bazar, the largest kitchen market in Dhaka.

The law enforcement agency repeatedly requested the troublemakers to leave the area. Later, the law enforcement dispersed them in the evening to restore to normalcy.

As the troublemakers grew more agitated, the police lobbed tear gas shells and fired sound grenades.

As a group of 15-20 people tried to take position in front of the Prothom Alo office around 12:00 pm today, the police dispersed them. Again, the troublemakers tried to take position in front of the Prothom Alo office around 2:30 pm and engaged in scuffle with the police.

Afterwards, they sat on the main road in front of the Karwan Bazar kitchen market and slaughtered a cow there and chanted slogans against Prothom Alo.

By evening the number of troublemakers increased to 50-60.

Though the army and the police officials requested them time and again to leave the area, they did not budge.

The police issued an ultimatum for them to leave the area as the time was nearing for the arrival of trucks of vegetables and other daily essentials at the market. This made them more agitated that created panic in the whole Karwan Bazar area. Many of the traders shut their shops while the entrance to the Karwan Bazar station of the metro rail was also closed.

The law enforcement members tried to disperse the troublemakers by blowing their whistles that led to a scuffle. Some people started throwing brick chips on the police at that time. At one stage, the police members charged batons and lobbed several rounds of tear gas shells and sound grenades that dispersed them.

The police officials said the law enforcement agency members were compelled to disperse the troublemakers to normalise the law and order situation after trying to quell them for the whole day.

They tried to gather again around 8:30 pm.

Earlier, the troublemakers tried to create a similar situation in front of the Prothom Alo office at Karwan Bazar on Thursday. They also tried to create obstacles in front of the Prothom Alo office on Saturday afternoon and chanted slogans against the newspaper, taking position on the road for some time.