Juba League, Chhatra League clash in anti-shutdown procession

Two fronts of the ruling Awami League fought pitched battles in Dhaka on Thursday as they walked in processions against a Jamaat-e-Islami’s shutdown.

The Juba League and Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) have traded charges over the clashes at Rampura.

Chhatra League claims ‘outsiders masquerading as Juba League members’ fired on them, injuring one of their leaders.

But the Juba League faction claims that two of their leaders have been injured in BCL firing.
 

Police say five persons have been admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital with “minor injuries”.

Jamaat called the shutdown on Wednesday after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rejected the petition of its Secretary General war criminal Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid seeking a review of his death sentence.

BCL’s former Rampura unit chief SM Moazzem Hossain Topu said ‘outsiders’ ‘Rois’ and ‘Shiblu’, who identify themselves as Juba League activists, took out a procession in Rampura around the same time BCL did.

“We were attacked from the procession,” he claimed.

Two of the injured, ‘Jahangir’ and ‘Syed’, claiming to be Juba League activists, said the BCL had attacked them first.

Topu said clashes began when they fought back after BCL’s Ward No. 22 unit leader ‘Selim’ was shot on the leg.

“The Juba League activists attacked us again when we were taking our injured to DMCH,” he alleged.

But the youth front’s purported activists Jahangir and Syed claimed they were fired upon from the BCL procession.