A youth was killed and more than 40 people were injured in a clash between activists of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League, activities of which are now banned, at Derai in Sunamganj on Tuesday.

The deceased, Ratan Miah, 27, was a supporter of Bhatipara union BNP general secretary Shah Dwip, local people and the police said.

Ratan died at about 9:00am on Wednesday while he was undergoing treatment at Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital, they said.

Local people said that there was a long-standing enmity between BNP leader Shah Dwip, also a member of the local union parishad, and Abdul Muhit, resident of the same Alinagar village and the Bhatipara union’s No 2 ward president of Juba League, over land properties and establishing supremacy in the area.

They said that supporters of Muhit assaulted Shah Dwip on Tuesday afternoon while he was returning home from the Bhatipara Bazar.

As a sequel of the incident, supporters of the both sides armed with locally made weapons locked in a clash in the evening at the village, they said.

They said that more than 40 people of both sides were injured in the hour-long clash and several houses were also vandalised.

After the clash, Sonai Miah, 70, Ratan Miah and Al Amin were taken to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital at night with critical injuries, while the remaining injured received treatment at different private hospitals and clinics in Sunamganj and Sylhet, they said.

Derai police station officer-in-charge Enamul Haque Chowdhury confirmed to New Age the death of Ratan.

He said that a team of police were deployed at the Alinagar village to avoid further clash.

‘Efforts are under way to arrest the people involved in the killing,’ he said on Wednesday afternoon, adding that further legal step would be taken after receiving a written complaint in this regard from the victim’s family.