Chhatra League claims highway procession in Faridpur, police deny it; three held after torch procession in Bhanga

The district Chhatra League has claimed that it held a procession on the Dhaka-Barishal highway in Nagarkanda, Faridpur, in support of a programme of the banned Awami League. Police, however, have denied that any such procession took place on the highway. Meanwhile, police have detained three teenagers after a torch procession in Bhanga.

The organisation claimed the procession took place at around 8am on Tuesday.

At around 9am, district Chhatra League president Tamjidul Rashid Chowdhury Rian posted a one-minute video of the procession on his personal Facebook account. The video shows more than a hundred people marching forward chanting various slogans, while long-distance buses pass by. Rian himself can be seen leading the procession.

Police have denied the claim of a Chhatra League procession on the highway. Golam Rasul Samdani Azad, officer-in-charge of Nagarkanda police station, said he had seen the video, but it did not appear to him to be an incident on any highway under Nagarkanda police station. It is possible that a procession held somewhere else is being claimed as an incident in Nagarkanda, he said.

The OC added that police have been patrolling the highway since 5am, and as far as he knows, no such procession took place in the area under his control.

Meanwhile, at around 10pm on Monday, a few leaders and activists of the Awami Swechchhasebak League brought out a torch procession in front of the house of filmmaker Tareque Masud in Nurpur, Bhanga municipality. Local BNP leaders, activists and supporters then detained three of them and handed them over to police.

A video of the torch procession has spread on social media. In the video, several young men can be heard chanting slogans while holding torches, including 'Sheikh Hasina has no fear, we have not left the streets' and 'Zafrullah has no fear, we have not left the streets.'

Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Bhanga police station, said police were sent to the spot as soon as they received the news, and three people were detained there. All those detained are young. Police will examine whether they brought out the torch procession at anyone's instigation and take necessary action.

Tension has been running in Faridpur and various other parts of the country since Monday night, centred on the nationwide student strike called by the banned organisation Chhatra League. Police said the situation is being monitored.