15 injured in police

At least 15 people were injured as the police charged the activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and journalists with baton at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on Sunday. Several hundred leaders and activists gathered on the hospital premises at about 10:30am to see ailing Tarique Rahman, senior joint secretary general of BNP, who was scheduled to be produced in the court at Jatiya Sangsad Complex in a graft case on the day. As physicians and police were escorting Tarique to an ambulance at the entrance of Block D of the hospital, JCD men rushed there to see him, witnesses said. Tarique was about to fall down from the wheelchair when the lawmen and JCD activists were locked in a scuffle. But on-duty physicians managed to ‘push’ him into the ambulance. Later the police charged the activists and journalists with baton in order to disperse them, leaving 15 people, including Dinkal photojournalist Babul Talukder, injured. Additional police were deployed at the hospital before taking back Tarique to the hospital from the court at about 1:30pm. Several hundred leaders and activists of BNP and its front organisations also gathered at the east end of Jatiya Sangsad Complex.