Bangladesh Ansar, a disciplined force, whose main job is to ensure internal security and law enforcement, put the Bangladesh Games into shame when they attacked match officials and left them bloodied after their loss to BJMC in the women’s kabaddi final on Tuesday.
The incident, which stunned the Games organisers, left one of the umpires Rafiqul Islam needing five stitches on his head and other umpire Azgar Ali badly injured.
Match referee Amzad Hossain Maznu and four Ansar members were also injured in the scuffle. Injured umpire Rafiqul was admitted to a hospital while an investigation was ordered immediately.
The unfortunate episode started when some 200 Ansar members swooped on the match officials immediately after their women’s team lost to BJMC by 19-16 in the closely contested final.
The Ansar members claimed that the outburst was in the offing as a group of officials at the Bangladesh Kabaddi Federation always acted against them and appointed umpires and referees to favour their opponents.
The Ansar members were fuming in the gallery after they witnessed some unsavoury umpiring which helped BJMC lead the first half by 9-8.
They simply could not come to terms with the outcome and they entered the field after the conclusion of the match, started hammering the match officials and threw chairs at the federation members and BJMC players.
The incident occurred in front of the Bangladesh Olympic Association secretary general Shahed Reza, who was visibly shell-shocked.
‘This is very frustrating. I ordered the kabaddi federation to investigate the incident. I hope I will get the report by three days. Then the BOA will take action accordingly,’ said Reza.
Nazrul Islam, general secretary of the BKF, blasted the Ansar faithful for exceeding their limit of foul-play and bringing the Games into disrepute.
‘The Ansar members could not control their emotions. Such incidents are unexpected. I think the referee and umpires conducted the match well,’ said Nazrul.
Ansar players, however, blamed the match officials and the general secretary of the BKF (Nazrul) for instigating the incident.
‘They (referee) didn’t give us an obvious point six or seven minutes before the end of the game, rather they gifted the point to them (BJMC),’ said Ansar captain Shahnaz Parvin.
‘If we had received the point, the match would have ended in a draw. When we inquired the referee about this, the BJMC players attacked us. The clash started just after that,’ said Parvin adding that one of her teammate Fatema also got injured.
Parvin also alleged that the general secretary of BKF, Nazrul made some derogatory remarks about her teammates.
‘BKF general secretary Nazrul always provokes the players. He said to the Ansar players that they can’t get married if they played for Ansar. And he took three players – Baby, Shahin Ara Bristy and Farhana – from Ansar to BJMC,’ said Parvin.
‘Nazrul was determined to present the BJMC with the gold medal and the referee executed his plan,’ Parvin added.
BJMC captain Shahin Ara Bristy, a former Ansar player, held her opponents responsible for the entire fiasco.
‘The match ended as it should have ended. One of their players bit one of our player’s arm. After that the Ansar members attacked the referees and officials from the gallery,’ said Bristy.
-With New Age input