Police vehicle vandalised, activities-banned AL leader taken away in handcuffs

A group of people stopped a police vehicle in Jaintiapur, Sylhet, and snatched a leader of Awami League, whose activities are banned, while he was handcuffed. They also vandalised the police vehicle.

The incident took place on Monday night in the Koricher Pul area of Haripur in the upazila of Sylhet.

Police later conducted a drive and detained three people on suspicion of involvement in the incident.

The Awami League (activities banned) leader is Zakaria Mahmud from Hemu Haudpara village in the Haripur area. . He is the deputy office secretary of Jaintiapur upazila Awami League and a former joint general secretary of the district Chhatra League.

According to police sources, Zakaria Mahmud was detained by police from the Station area of Haripur Bazar in Jaintiapur at around 7:30pm on Monday.

While he was being taken to the police station, several people blocked the police vehicle with a pickup truck in the Koricher Pul area of the Sylhet–Tamabil highway, about one kilometre from the market. They vandalised the police vehicle and took Zakaria away while he was still handcuffed.

Jaintiapur Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mahbubur Rahman Molla said five cases had been filed against Zakaria at the police station. He was detained on Monday night. While he was being taken to the police station, the police vehicle was blocked and the detainee was snatched away along with his handcuffs. Police later conducted a drive at night and detained three people involved in the incident.

OC Mahbubur Rahman Molla further said that operations were underway to arrest Zakaria and the others involved in snatching him away.