Police took six leaders and activists of Naya Dhara Bangladesh in custody Tuesday night following a clash with members of the Rashtra Sanglap Forum near the Jatiya Press Club and a three-hour standoff at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The six were escorted out of the hospital’s emergency department under police protection around 11:10pm and taken away in a police vehicle.
They are Naya Dhara Chairman Momin Mehedi, Senior Vice-Chairman Shanta Farzana, Vice-Chairman Dr Nurjahan Nira, Joint Secretary General Monir Zaman, and organising secretaries Atap Mondal and Haridas Sarkar.
Mainul Islam Khan Pulok, inspector (operations) of Shahbagh Police Station, told The Daily Star that they were in police custody.
Police had yet to decide whether they would be formally arrested, he said.
The clash broke out on Tuesday evening when Naya Dhara was holding a programme in front of the Press Club to protest the alleged assault on Shanta on August 1.
Several people from both sides, including Shanta and Rashtra Sanglap Forum Member Secretary ANM Ayas, were injured and taken to DMCH for treatment.
Afterwards, members and supporters of the Rashtra Sanglap Forum gathered outside the hospital and confined Shanta and other Naya Dhara leaders inside the emergency department for around three hours. They allegedly attacked them again while police were escorting them out.
The two sides also created disorder inside the emergency department, disrupting medical services for around one and a half hours.
Inspector Md Faruk, in-charge of the DMCH police camp, said the situation caused fear among patients and their attendants. Before police intervened, one group remained outside the hospital while the other stayed inside the emergency department, he added.
The two organisations gave conflicting accounts of how the clash began.
Rashtra Sanglap Forum leaders alleged that Shanta made offensive remarks about July fighters and the BNP during the programme. When they protested, Naya Dhara activists attacked them, leaving Ayas and several others injured, they claimed.
Naya Dhara Chairman Momin Mehedi, however, alleged that Ayas arrived at the programme with a group of people and attacked his party’s leaders and activists.He also claimed that the attackers took away phones of journalists.
