JCD 'dissidents' lock up HQ

A group of agitating Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) activists have locked up its Naya Paltan headquarters demanding the new JCD committee be annulled.

They also burned effigies of JCD leaders during their Saturday's demonstration.

JCD is BNP's student front.

Tension has been brewing since BNP chief Khaleda Zia approved a new committee on Oct 14.

Those left out of the committee have been demonstrating since.

Several hundred activists agitated in front of the BNP headquarters on Saturday and threatened continued demonstration until the new committee was scrapped.

Several leaders of the new committee were seen joining the demonstration.

The previous committee's Deputy Joint General Secretary Rakibul Islam Royel said, "We want a strong Chhatra Dal Committee. The one announced [recently], must be annulled.

"We don't accept it."

The agitators have taken position in front of the party office and chased away a member of the new committee from there.

A group of them wielding sticks positioned themselves at Naya Paltan.

Around noon, BNP acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir went there only to be surrounded by protesters who shouted slogans demanding scrapping the committee.

Fakhrul assured them that he would 'look into' the matter.

Agitators burned effigies of BNP's Student Affairs Secretary Shaheeduddin Chowdhury Annee and Deputy Secretary Sultan Salahuddin Tuku blaming the two for the new committee.