UNB, Gazipur :
Supporters of an Awami League rebel chairman candidate staged violent demonstrations in Sripur upazila on Friday afternoon after Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) men picked the contestant.
However, the elite force released the chairman candidate, Abdul Jalil, after four hours of detention.
Locals said, a group of plain-clothes people, posing as RAB members, picked chairman candidate in the upazila polls billed for March 15 from Barmi area around 2pm while he
was campaigning there.
As the news of his detention spread around, Jalil’s supporters took to the street and blocked Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway at Mauna by placing logs and setting tyres afire, disrupting vehicular movement on the busy highway.
Due to the blockade, a 15-kilometre tailback was created on the highway, said Mauna Highway Police Station officer-in-charge (OC) Sanowar Hossain. The angry activists also vandalised several vehicles at that time.
Traffic on Dhaka-Sripur and Dhaka-Kapasia roads also came to a halt following the blockade.
The situation returned to normalcy after RAB released Jalil around 6pm. Sripur Police Station OC Amir Hossain confirmed the incident, but he could not say why RAB members picked the chairman candidate.
