Angry AL men yesterday besieged the office of the returning officer (RO) at Kalihati for two hours following an untoward incident allegedly occurred by army men on Saturday night, sources said.
In the incident, seven Awami League (AL) workers were allegedly beaten by the army men, resulting in injuries to them. The injured were admitted to the Kalihati Upazila Health Complex.
The injured AL workers were the supporters of mayoral candidate of Kalihati municipality Ansar Ali, B.Com.
The election agent of AL mayor candidate, Ansar Ali has already lodged a written complaint with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) demanding punishment to the persons responsible for the incident.
In his complaint, Ansar Ali alleged that members of the army patrol team entered the house of AL mayoral candidate and picked up four supporters from there. They were Mukul Chandra Pal, Masud Ali, Zoad Ali and Uzzal Hossain. Later, the same team picked up three more workers of the mayor candidate named Mosharaf, Mamun and Mangol Sutradhar and beat them up at Kalihati college Intersection.
The next morning, hundreds of supporters of AL mayor candidate besieged the office of the returning officer for two hours.
Later, senior army officers of Shaheed Salahuddin Cantonment, Ghatail, held a meeting with Kalihati upazila chairman Hasan Imam Khan, upazila nirbahi officer Mamun-ul-Hasan and local AL leaders. The meeting decided to withdraw the army officer responsible for the incident and give responsibility to another army officer, sources said.
Earlier, Election Commission (EC) decided to deploy army personnel in two (Kalihati and Tangail) out of nine centers during municipal poll.
Meanwhile, election to nine municipalities of Tangail district will be held today.