Mahal, also a contractor, suffered a bullet wound in his back in Friday's shootout at a political rally in Tongi that left Ahsanullah and a schoolboy killed and at least five others injured.

Only high-profile civilians with critical wounds are generally admitted to the CMH.

An official at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) confirmed that Mahfuzur Rahman Mahal, a member of the central committee of AL's youth front, was sent to the CMH on an instruction from the Prime Minister's Office despite his family's objection. Sources at the DMCH said Mahal's wound was not so critical. He talked with his relatives and party workers and the relatives insisted that he be kept at the DMCH.

"If his condition was so critical that he needed to be taken to the CMH, why didn't doctors operate on him to take out the bullet that hit him in the back during his 20 hours and 15 minutes at ward No. 30 in the (Dhaka Medical College) hospital?"

a Jubo League activist asked.

"And if his condition was critical, then how did he talked for so long with police to disclose the information the (state-run news agency) BSS carried?"

Professor Shafiquddin Ahmed, head of DMC Neurosurgery Department and in charge of Ward No. 30 where Mahal was kept, disclosed the decision to send him to the military hospital. But his relatives did not agree and said it would be difficult for them to see him once he was taken there.

Mahal's father Mojibur Rahman Sikder was told that he was being taken there for better treatment.

Talking to The Daily Star at the DMCH on Friday, Mahal lying in bed and flanked by his wife shook his head 'no' as he was asked whether the attack was the result of an internal conflict. Our DMCH correspondent repeated the question and Mahal answered the same.

Also, AL and Jubo League activists who took him to hospital denied any internal feud between AL and its front organisation leaders in Tongi.

But the official news agency BSS sent a report to newspaper offices Saturday night, saying Mahal corroborated that 'the incident was the outcome of an intra-party rivalry', hours after he was taken to the CMH in a DMCH ambulance under police escort.

BSS says Mahal and local Jubo League activist Sumon who were present at the rally identified five of the killers and named them to police.

"Mahfuz (Mahal) said Jahangir and Masum finding their much expected names absent from the new committee started indiscriminate firing on the dais while the new Ward-10 committee was being announced in presence of Ahsanullah Master that left the Awami League lawmaker and a schoolboy dead and a number of others including Mahfuz wounded," BSS said in another report yesterday.

"Giving details of the intra-party feud, Mahfuz said apparent feeling of deprivation by a group of Jubo League led to the shootout. Mahfuz named Rajab group of local Jubo League responsible for the gruesome murder of AL MP. Jahangir, Masum, Anu, Salam and Shohag are the armed cadres of Rajab group, he (Mahfuz) said," the report reads.

Officer-in-Charge of Tongi Police Station Nur Ahammad told The Daily Star by phone that Tongi police did not talk to Mahal or Sumon. "We have not yet arrested anyone for the killings," he said.

On the BSS report of arresting Sumon and Madhu in Amtali village in Tongi, he said the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) might have arrested and quizzed them.

Asked why the CID was interrogating them once the case was filed with Tongi Police Station, he said the CID can do so.

DENIAL OF LINKS
"A vested quarter is spreading the fabricated story of such an internal feud to twist the incident," Kamrul Hossain, general secretary of Tongi Jubo League, told The Daily Star last night. He brushed aside the involvement of Rajab group in the killing.

Local leaders of the AL and its front organisations alleged that government officials forced Mahal to give a statement describing the incident as the result of an internal conflict.

"The government may videotape Mahal saying the killing was linked to an internal feud," a senior Tongi AL leader feared.

Police earlier sent videotape to television channels showing Proshika official Harunur Rashid confessing on camera that Proshika chief Qazi Faruque Ahmed joined hands with the AL to overthrow the BNP-led coalition government. TV channels broadcast the video.

Later, Harun retracted his statement and said police intimidated him into saying that.

VIOLENCE
Angry protesters hurled brickbats at the microbus of television channel ntv at about 11:45am in Tongi, injuring reporter SM Babu, 28, and cameraman Jalal Uddin, 32.

A local group protesting a Bangladesh Television report broadcast in the wake of the incident beat up Noor Mohammad, a BTV cameraman, and damaged his camera when he went to Noagaon High School.