Locals have chased and detained 45 people from a flash procession by the banned organisation Chhatra League on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway in Cumilla. Police seized three microbuses and two buses used in the procession. The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon in the Matiara area of Cumilla’s Sadar Dakshin upazila, on the Dhaka-bound lane of the highway.
According to eyewitnesses, a large number of Chhatra League activists arriving in several vehicles suddenly came onto the road and began a procession; local sources said several hundred took part in the 24-to-30-second procession, which they said was pre-planned. There had been a plan to hold it in the Nimsar highway area of Burichang upazila, but the venue was changed at the last moment; the activists then gathered in the Matiara area and brought out a sudden procession near the U-turn junction. When news spread, local residents and political activists chased them and detained several, and some of the vehicles carrying them were seized. On receiving the news, police reached the scene and detained 45 people in total after searches.
Cumilla South district Chhatra Dal president Kazi Zubair Alam Jilani said the Chhatra Dal was ready to suppress the banned Chhatra League, and that it would firmly suppress any attempt to cause public suffering in the name of a procession. Cumilla Sadar Dakshin police officer-in-charge (OC) Md Rakibul Islam said some banned Chhatra League activists suddenly brought out a roughly 30-second flash procession; on receiving the news, police conducted a drive and detained 45 people and seized three Hiace microbuses and two buses. Additional police have been deployed on the highway and surrounding areas and surveillance strengthened to keep the law-and-order situation normal, he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report