Armed Awami League cadres escort local lawmaker Abdul Wadud following an intra-party clash in Puthia upazila of Rajshahi on Sunday. The photo was taken at Puthia Bazar.Photo: STAR

Police is yet to take legal action against alleged Awami League cadres who brandished lethal weapons in Rajshahi's Puthia upazila on Sunday while escorting the local lawmaker following an intra-party clash.
“Police were not there so the men could not be identified. Whether they were Awami League cadres can not be said for sure but they were not locals,” said Officer-in-Charge Abdus Salam of Puthia Police Station.
No complaint was filed after the clash, he added.
Photographs published in Prothom Alo yesterday showed the men escorting the vehicle of lawmaker Quazi Abdul Wadud Dara of Rajshahi-5 (Puthia-Durgapur) constituency in Puthia Bazar.
Earlier that day, 10 people were injured in an “attack” by the men on a group led by a former president of Rajshahi unit Bangladesh Chhatra League, GM Hira Bachchu.
Hira said a council at Biraldaha College in the morning to form two AL committees of Puthia municipality and union units was postponed at noon following a dispute.
However, Wadud unilaterally announced the committees, leading to protests and the attack, he said.
“Filing a case over the attack requires for me to accuse the lawmaker. Why will I do so when we are from the same party,” said Hira, adding that he did not recognise the armed men.
Wadud said, “Nothing big occurred. It was just a misunderstanding among us...none of my party men showed arms before me. If I had seen so, I would have expelled him.”
Hira and Wadud's groups sat together at the college yesterday but the former's group left soon protesting Wadud's unilateral decisions, said party insiders.