AL cadres attack BNP rally in city

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A group of unruly Awami League (AL) cadres Thurs-day afternoon unleashed an attack on a BNP demonstration on the Alam Market premises in the city's Jurain area, vandalising the dais and driving out demonstrators, reports UNB.
At around 4:50pm, soon after a speech by BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain at a pre-procession rally, a group of ruling AL activists numbering about 50 appeared at the venue and swooped on the rally chanting 'Joy Bangla' slogans and chased the BNP leaders and workers.
The incident took place in presence of a number of police but it was found that the law enforcers did not take any steps to contain the attackers.
Some of the attackers threw bricks towards the gathering, but until the filing of this report at 5:00pm, no injuries had been reported. Following the attack, the demonstrators left the venue.
A panicky situation was created during the incident and shops were shut down while people were running to and fro.
Later, AL activists brought out a procession in the area chanting slogans in favour of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
As part of the ongoing demonstrations in different parts of the capital organised by BNP that begun Wednesday, demonstrations were held at 10 points in the city Thursday demanding a resolution of the crises of electricity, gas and water.
Addressing the rally in front of Alam Market under Shyampur thana before it came under attack, front-ranking leader of BNP Dr Mosharraf said any government, which could not provide electricity, water and gas, had no right to stay in power.
He said people of the entire country were now aggrieved following the failures of the government.
Mosharraf criticised and refuted the Prime Minister's recent statement blaming the last BNP-led four-party alliance government for the present crisis of electricity, water and gas.
He said the four-party alliance government had added 1,500mw new electricity to the national grid during the 2001-'06 period. And a number of projects were undertaken and the tender process was also finalised for generation of another 2,500mw of electricity. But the last military-backed caretaker government abandoned those projects.