The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

At least five people were injured in a clash yesterday morning in an eviction drive conducted by Hossain Electric Industries Employees Multipurpose Cooperative Society at the ground floor of BSS building at Purana Paltan in the city.

Police said the clash ensued at about 11:00am when the members of the cooperative society along with a platoon of police went to evict the shops as per the court order and they were resisted by the affected shop owners and their employees.

Officials of the Cooperative Society claimed that the shops were set up illegally on the ground floor of the building and they went to evict the shops following the court's eviction notice to the shop owners.

The shop owners, however, said they had not received any such eviction notice from the court.

They alleged that the staff, in presence of police, looted valuables of their shops in the name of eviction and also beat up some of them when they tried to resist their illegal drive.

The shop owners further alleged that police beat them up when the owners and their employees staged demonstrations on the road.

Some journalists working with BSS, the official news agency, came under attack when they tried to enter their offices housed on the 1st and 2nd floors of the building.

The victims say the vandals also took goods worth Tk 100 crore from the 28 shops on the ground floor of the market.

Witnesses said members of Cooperative Society, wearing red cloth around their foreheads, came to the BSS building at about 11:00am to hang a banner without the presence of a magistrate. The land grabbers demolished the ground floor of the BSS Bhaban, leaving first, second and third floors of the building in a vulnerable state.

However, police personnel present during the rampage said they were acting under direct orders from the higher authority to evict illegal occupants from the market under a court order.

Meanwhile, The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) filed a case with Paltan Police Station against the demolition of a part of the BSS office building in the city and attack by unruly outsiders on it.

In a statement the BFUJ and DUJ said BSS is the national news agency and the journalist community would not tolerate any attack on its journalists and employees.

They urged the authorities concerned to take immediate steps for safely and security of journalists and employees.

They said any dispute over the land could be solved through legal measures.