5 Rangpur UZ chairmen, vice-chairmen arrested

Police have arrested three newly-elected Upazila (UZ) Parishad chairmen and two vice-chairmen from Rangpur for alleged involvement in violence during the January 5 parliamentary polls. They were also accused of ‘causing obstruction’ to police in discharge of duty. Detective branch (DB) sleuths arrested the five from in front of the Divisional Commissioner’s Office around 3pm on Thursday just when they were to take oath in a conference room there. All of them were elected in the first phase of the ongoing UZ polls. The arrested are Chairman of Mithapukur UZ in Rangpur district and the Upazila unit Ameer (chief) of Jamaat-e-Islami Golam Rabbani, the UZ Vice-Chairman and the Upazila unit Jamaat member Abdul Baset Marzan, Chairman of Boda UZ in Panchagarh district and Jamaat activist Shafiul Alam Shafi, Chairman of Panchagarh’s Atoari UZ and President of Atoari unit BNP Abdur Rahman and its Vice-Chairman and the Upazila unit Chhatra Dal President Mohammad Shajahan. Rangpur district Superintendent of Police (SP) Abdur Razzak said there were arrest warrants against the five in several cases filed for their alleged involvement in attacks on the police, setting fire to vehicles and polling centres and snatching away ballot boxes and ballot papers before and after the 10th national election. The accused were produced in the court which ordered them to be locked up in Rangpur Central Jail, according to bdnews24.com.