BDNEWS from Noakhali says: The activists of the ruling BNP and its youth front Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal allegedly launched an attack on a press conference of Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh (BDB) in Noakhali yesterday, leaving five people, including its Secretary General Major (rtd) Abdul Mannan, injured.

The four other injured are BDB District Convenor Shihab, 27, and activists Aftab Hossain, 30, Zahid, 30, and Khokon.

The press conference was organised at the BRDB auditorium in the afternoon to protest the attack on BDB leaders Master Tahedul Islam and Jamal Uddin Sabuj by local BNP leaders at Batirtek in Noakhali Sadar Union on Friday.

Mannan alleged that the attackers snatched from him Tk 75,000 carried for distributing among the poor in different areas of the district, a mobile phone, two bank cheque books and a handbag.

BDB President Prof AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury in a statement in Dhaka said the attack exposed the "undemocratic character" of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government. He demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment to the attackers.

Our Correspondent from Bogra reports: The ruling BNP activists attacked the leaders and activists of BDB at a party programme, leaving several party men and three policemen injured in Joypurhat last night, BDB leader Mahi B Chowdhury alleged.

The injured are Major (Retd) Nazir, office secretary of the central committee, ATM Kamal, convenor of Jubo Dhara, Wazed Ali, Jahangir Alam, secretary general and convenor of Dhaka city Jubo Dhara.

Mahi told reporters that he went to Naogaon to attend a party programme and a gang of about 50 ruling party men, led by BNP lawmaker Abdul Alim's son Faisal Amin, made the attack around 9:00pm when he [Mahi] was in Joypurhat on his way to the capital.

Mahi also said another BNP lawmaker Abu Yusuf Mohammad Khalilur Rahman was present during the attack but he did not stop his party men. "The attack orders came from the high-ups of BNP," he alleged.