100 including 22 cops injured: 5 held: Jamaat-Shibirmen attack Joint forces in Gaibandha

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At least 100 people including 22 law enforcers were injured when the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, made a surprise attack on Joint forces in Sundarganj upazila of Gaibandha on Sunday. The Jamaat-Shibir men torched a pick-up van of police and vandalised nearly 12 houses during their nearly eight-hour clash at Kadamtala village in the upazila, Mofazzal Hossain, Superintendent of Police (SP) in Gaibandha, told The New Nation.The law enforcers managed to arrest five Jamaat-Shibir activists from the area, he said. Shahidul Islam Manju, Sundarganj upazila unit secretary of Jamaat, claimed that nearly 100 leaders and activists of their party were injured in the clash.The joint forces personnel came under attack around 1:30am when they went to Kadamtala village in Sarbananda union of the upazila to arrest the accused persons in different cases filed in connection with recent spate of violence in the district, said SP Hossain. A team of nearly 150 lawmen from police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) started the drive and managed to cordon off the village, the SP said.Sensing the presence of the law enforcers, the Jamaat-Shibir activists resisted them, putting barricades at different points on the road leading to the village.At one stage, the Jamaat-Shibir men swooped on the law enforcers with bamboo sticks and sharp weapons, forcing the members of joint forces to retaliate with gunfire. Police also fired at least 30 rounds of rubber bullets during the clash but failed to disperse them.During the clash, 22 members of joint forces were injured, the SP said.

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