At least 25 people were injured and more than 40 CNG-run auto-rickshaws vandalised in a two-hour clash between two groups of auto-rickshaw drivers in Sylhet city Monday afternoon.
Police took the situation in control after firing teargas and rubber bullets, police said.
Local sources said the clash began at around 1:00pm between the drivers of two auto-rickshaw stands at Chandirpul in the city over picking passengers from Chandirpul intersection on the Sylhet-Dhaka Highway.
The Chandirpul Auto-Rickshaw Stand manager Alamgir had an altercation with a member of North East Medical
College Auto-rickshaw Stand at around 12:30pm over picking passenger from the Chandirpul Intersection on Sylhet-Dhaka Highway.
After the incident, the auto-rickshaw drivers of both stands, armed with locally-made weapons, were locked in a clash at the intersection, leaving at least 25 people injured, the sources said.
The clashing groups also vandalised some 40 CNG-run auto-rickshaws in the about-two-hour clash, eyewitnesses said.
Being informed, Dakkhin Surma police reached the spot at around 2:30pm and tried to stop clash but failed.
Later, they fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse them and brought the situation under control after half an hour, police said.
An auto-rickshaw
driver, Shamsul, told New Age that the injured
were admitted to different private hospitals and clinics.
‘Leaders of the district unit of auto-rickshaw workers’ association were trying to settle the matter through arbitration,’ he said in the afternoon.
Being contacted, Dakkhin Surma police officer-in-charge Ranjan Samanta confirmed the news of clash and police intervention to stop the clash.
‘No written allegation in this regard was submitted to the police till the afternoon,’ the police officer said.
-With New Age input
