Five injured as locals swoop on administration in Pirojpur

A clash between locals and upazila administration has left five people injured -- including a UP chairman, police, and journalists -- in Pirojpur. 

The clash ensued over enforcing mandatory 14-quarantine on people who had returned home amid the ongoing countrywide shutdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The incident took place in Boldia union under Nesarabad upazila on Thursday afternoon.

According to sources, around 27 people returned to Boldia union and adjacent areas from Dhaka and Narayanganj, where the highest numbers of coronavirus patients have been reported.

So, local administration along with police decided to quarantine the returnees, but the locals did not agree and swooped on them -- leading to the minor casualties.

Nesarabad Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sarkar Abdullah Al Mamun Babu confirmed: “A number of people have returned home from Dhaka and Narayanganj in the past few days. For this reason, we had decided to quarantine these people."

But, the locals defied the order and obstructed government work and attacked administration staff, he said.

Swarupkathi police station OC Md Kamruzzaman Talukdar said: “The locals were intentionally riled up by some local influential figures, who led them to come down on us.”

Till the writing of this report, no case was filed and no one was detained over the matter.