Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Director General Major Gen Aziz Ahmed yesterday said his men were forced to open fire to contain the situation in Pirojpur and Cox’s Bazar during Tuesday’s Union Parishad elections.
“The incidents were unexpected. The people were not cooperating with us, compelling us to use lethal force to bring the situation under control,” he told a programme at the BGB Headquarters in Dhaka.
He said the BGB troopers had followed the law.
At least eight people were reportedly killed in violence centring the first phase of the polls of 712 Union Parishads.
The BGB shot dead five men who were attempted to snatch ballot boxes after the end of polling in Pirojpur’s Mathbaria.
About the incident, Aziz said: “The presiding officer in Mathbaria had rejected some fake ballots but the people were forcing him to count them. They confined the officer when he refused to do so.
“The magistrate and BGB officials went to the spot to rein in the situation. They [BGB] first fired shots in the air with the magistrate’s permission but were later forced to open fire as the situation spiralled out of control.”
Mathbaria police station Sub-Inspector Sanowar Hossain Khan filed a case against 1,200-1,300 unnamed persons on Wednesday night for vandalising vehicles, snatching ballot papers, and barring lawmen from their duty.
As for the Cox’s Bazar’s incident, he said the clash erupted when the people confined the presiding officer in Teknaf and tried to take over the polling centre.
A gunfight between supporters of the Awami League candidate and the rival aspirant left one Shafik Alam,
25, dead in Majherpara
polling station at Shahfarid Dwip under Teknaf’s Shaparan union.