A Correspondent :
Vehicular movement remained halted for around half an hour on Chittagong-Khagrachhari highway at Fatikchhari upazila on Monday as local transport workers put a barricade on the road following an altercation between the leaders of two Awami League front organisations.
The altercation and scuffle occurred between President of Fatikchhari Municipality unit Juba League Golam Maola Golap and Convener of Fatikchhari upazila unit Sramik League Habibur Rahman, according to local residents.
Habib said he was president of Fatikchhari Upazila CNG-run Auto-rickshaw Cooperative, but Golap had been “trying to get a post of adviser” of the organisation for a long time.
Golap, also a councillor of Ward 8 of the municipality, was rejected by the members of the cooperative, Habib said, adding that yesterday, Golap and his followers tried to halt the auto-rickshaw movement in the area.
“As we tried to resist them, they beat us up,” Habib said, adding that some 10 workers including him were injured in the attack, and they took primary treatment.
Following the incident, Habib’s followers put a barricade on the highway, said Assistant Sub-inspector of Fatikchhari Police Station Abdus Sattar.
The barricade was withdrawn after police reached the spot. However, Golap denied the allegation. “There is no question of me trying to be an adviser of the workers’ organisation,” he said.
“I went there as some workers complained to me that the workers’ leaders are extorting them every day.” “When I asked Habibur about the allegation, he and his followers quarrelled and scuffled with me,” he said. ASI Sattar called it a “misunderstanding” between the two.
