Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leaders and activists, who were left in the cold in the new central committee, went berserk at the BNP’s Nayapaltan headquarters yesterday.
Paltan police station OC Murshed Alam told the Dhaka Tribune that a group of deprived JCD activists entered the BNP headquarters and damaged the furniture. Police rushed to the spot and took control of the situation. Additional police personnel were deployed to avoid further escalation of tension.
No one was arrested, the OC said, adding that a general diary would be filed against the incident.
They also set fire to two motorcycles parked in front of the office, witnesses said. Meanwhile, locals doused the fire before reaching the firefighters on the spot.
Tension brewed after the BNP approved a full-fledged 736-member committee for its student affiliate on Saturday night – 16 months after forming a partial committee, which led to factional clashes.
JCD’s Vice President Rakibul Islam Royal said agitated Chhatra Dal leaders and activists blamed the BNP’s Student Affair Secretary Shahidul Haque Anny, former JCD president Sultan Salauddin Tuku along with current president and sectary for forming such a committee where people loyal to them had got the posts but those eligible were neglected.
He said activists who were left out of the committee could have ran amok.
The JCD on Sunday night also announced expulsion of two of its leaders – Saiful Islam Meraj and central committee member Masudur Rahman Masud.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, at a press briefing at the BNP headquarters, claimed that the government was behind the attack. He also questioned the silent role of police during the incident.
Rizvi claimed activists of the JCD could not do something like that and pointed finger at outsiders for the attack.