MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS : Attacks, cases browbeat opposition

With only three days left for the election to 234 municipalities, ruling Awami League men seem to be on a spree of filing cases against their rival candidates since Wednesday night in a bid to scare them off electioneering while attacks on rivals continued unabated.
At least three rival mayoral candidates and 271 activists were sued by AL candidates and their supporters alleging that they had attacked ruling party mayoral candidates during campaigning.
The cases were filed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Jamalpur, Comilla, Barguna and Khagrachari while police arrested a councillor candidate in Gazipur on Saturday morning.
At least 50 people were injured in attacks and clashes on Saturday and Friday across the country during electioneering in different municipal areas.
In Khagrachari, AL mayoral candidate M Shena Alam filed a case with sadar police on Friday against independent mayoral candidate Rafiqul Alam and 70 others on charge of obstructing his campaign.
Rafiqul Alam is incumbent mayor of the municipality and his elder brother Zahidul Alam is secretary of the district unit Awami League and his younger brother Didarul Alam is the education affairs secretary of the unit.
Khagrachari police officer-in-charge Shamsuddin Bhuyan said the police would take legal action after investigation.
In Comilla, an activist of AL mayoral candidate in Chandina municipality Mofiziul Islam on Friday filed a case with Chandina police against 25 BNP people, including BNP mayoral candidate M Alamgir Khan and independent mayoral candidate Abdul Mannan Sarkar, alleging their involvement in arson of a rickshaw used for AL candidate’s electioneering.
In Jamalpur, police arrested six activists of BNP mayoral candidate in Jamalpur municipality Shah Md Wares Ali Mamun on Wednesday night after a Juba League leader filed a case against Mamun’s 106 activists for allegedly vandalising an election camp and assaulting activists of AL mayoral candidate Mirza Sakhwatil Alam.
Mamun said none of his activists were involved in such activates but AL candidate filed against his activists to harass them.
In Barguna, an activist of AL mayoral candidate Kamrul Ahsan Moharaj lodged a case on Thursday with a court against 70 people including AL rebel candidate M Sahadat Hossain for allegedly demand extortion form Kamrul.
Sahadat said the case was filed against him after he lodged a complaint with returning officer after AL activists attacked his campaigners.
In Chittagong, campaigners for a BNP mayoral candidate came under attack in Rangunia municipality on Saturday.
Mir Mohammad Nasir, advisory council member of BNP chairperson, said a group of 30 to 40 ruling Awami League men attacked their campaign at Chaumuhani Bazar of Gochra around 1:15pm.
They opened fire on BNP men and assaulted them leaving at least five activists injured, he said.
One of them, Faruk, was sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital. A local Juba Dal leader, Aslam, was picked up by the ruling party men, he alleged.
‘They also damaged my car,’ Mir Nasir told New Age.
Meanwhile, additional police super of Chittagong (north) Mustafizur Rahman said he knew nothing about the attack on BNP men.
Followers of both the parties chased each other at Chaumuhani Bazar, leaving two people injured slightly, he said.
In Shariatpur, at least 30 people were injured in infighting between supporters of Awami League-backed mayoral candidate and its rebel candidate at Naria.
Locals said the hours-long clash began around 11:00am following an assault on an activist, Jewel Chaukider, of rebel mayoral candidate Shahidul Islam Babu Rari, allegedly carried out by activists of AL-backed mayoral candidate Haider Ali on Friday night.
More than 50 crude bombs were blasted during the clash.
The injured were taken to different hospitals and clinics in the area.
In Jessore, activists of Awami League-backed mayoral candidate allegedly attacked the supporters of rebel candidate SM Kamruzzaman Chunnu Saturday morning.
Kamruzzaman Chunnu said his activists came under attack by Awami League men in Railgate area of the town on Saturday, which left three of his followers injured.
In Natore, the BNP-nominated mayoral candidate, Nazrul Islam, was hemmed in for about an hour by the ruling party activists while he was electioneering at Kosebpur of Gopalpur municipality under Lalpur upazila.
He was freed by law enforcers later as he informed the returning officer of the matter over mobile phone.
In Brahmanbaria, miscreants vandalised two vehicles used in the campaign for BNP mayoral candidate in Akhaura municipality Mantaz Uddin on Saturday at Lalbazar.
In Chandpur, at least 10 supporters of BNP mayoral candidate in Matlab municipality Enamul Haque Badal were injured in an attack by AL activists on Friday.
Enamul said upazila parishad vice-chairman Ariful Islam and upazila unit Chhatra League convener Minhaz Uddin led the attack in presence of police.
Motlob south police officer-in-charge Quatabuddin said he was not aware of such incident.
Incidents of attacks on rival candidates on Friday and Thursday night were also reported from Barisal, Bogra, Jamalpur and Lakshmipur.

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