Police have arrested seven people in connection with beating and knifing a presiding officer and a policeman during the union parished election in Cumilla's Barura, reports UNB.
The arrestees are Saiful, Shaheen, Qadir, Rahman, Saddam, Khair and Ahsan. They were sent to jail after being produced to the court on Thursday, police sources said.
It is learned that the supporters of two member candidates tried to occupy the polling centre at Dhewatali government primary school in Jhalom union of Barura on 28 November.
During this time, they vandalised the furniture and snatched the ballot papers while assaulting Golam Sarwar Bhuiyan, presiding officer of the centre, and Abu Hanif, sub-inspector of police. As the situation got worse, the voting in the centre was suspended.
Assistant presiding officer and Maheshpur Azizia high achool assistant teacher Md Ahidul Islam filed a case in Barura police station mentioning the names of 11 persons and 25 unnamed persons.
Barura police station officer-in-charge Iqbal Bahar Majumder said that so far police have arrested seven people. Efforts are being made to arrest the rest. The culprits will be brought under the law, he said.