At least 27 people were injured in several clashes during elections in three municipalities in Barguna, Chittagong and Pirojpur district on Wednesday. In Barguna, miscreants stormed Gagan Memorial High School polling centre around 9:15 am and carried out vandalism, said Manjurul Alam, presiding officer of the centre. The attackers also snatched ballot papers from booths. At one stage, they locked into altercation with the on-duty law enforcers, and swooped on the people present there, leaving 25 of them, including polling officer and voters, injured. Later, members of joint force fired blank shots to resist the attackers. The incident prompted the authorities to suspend voting at the centre. In Chittagong, BNP-backed mayoral candidate Abul Mansur of Sitakunda municipality was injured in an attack allegedly by the ruling party men while he went to visit Pankhichila Primary School polling station around 10am. Later, he was admitted to Sitakunda Upazila Health Complex. Upazila Nribahi Officer Nazmul Islam confirmed this. In Pirojpur, BNP-backed mayoral candidate Shafiqul Islam Prodhan’s agent Sabbir Rahman was injured in an attack by some miscreants while he was going to a polling station of Shawrupkathi municipality. Harun-or-Rashid, general secretary of the district unit of BNP, alleged that some activists of AL-blessed mayoral candidate Golam Kabir beat up Sabbir around 7:30am. — Dhaka, Dec 30 (UNB)
