Eleven people sustained injuries following a violent clash between two opposing factions of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in Jamalpur’s Sarishabari upazila, triggered by a dispute over territorial dominance and illegal sand extraction. The confrontation erupted late at night in the Kawamara Bottola area of Pingna union, turning a local resource dispute into a bloody street battle.
The violence left several individuals severely wounded. Among the injured are Masud Mia, Chan Mia, Dr Mazharul Islam Mukul, Anisur Rahman Anis, Babu Mia, Humayun Kabir, Bayezid, Samal Mia, Shiblu Mia, former union parishad member Saiful Islam, and Subhash Sarkar, former general secretary of the Pingna union branch of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal. Given the severity of their wounds, medical personnel transferred the most critical casualties to Jamalpur General Hospital and Mymensingh Medical College Hospital for advanced treatment.
Local residents explained that the underlying tension stemmed from unauthorised commercial sand dredging. For an extended period, local Chhatra Dal leader Subhash Sarkar allegedly utilised mobile bulkheads and dredgers to illegally harvest and sell sand from the char areas along the Jamuna River in the Rospal mouza. Despite repeated protests from local farmers and senior BNP figures who warned of environmental and agricultural damage, the illegal extraction continued unabated.
The confrontation boiled over when local farmers and rival party members intercepted and seized an active sand-carrying bulkhead. Within hours, roughly twenty-five to thirty armed individuals arriving on fifteen motorcycles descended upon the Kawamara Bottola area under Sarkar’s leadership. Witnesses reported that the armed group fired a blank shot to sow panic before launching a brutal assault using machetes, galvanised iron pipes, and various indigenous weapons to beat and hack their opponents.
The local backlash continued into the following afternoon when three of Sarkar’s associates returned in an attempt to retrieve the seized bulkhead. Enraged residents apprehended the trio and handed them over to the police. Shamim Mia, a local member of Krishak Dal, condemned the violence, stating that Sarkar had been aggressively mining sand through intimidation and demanding his immediate arrest and prosecution for the armed assault and gunfire.
Rejecting the allegations levelled against him, Subhash Sarkar offered a different account of the incident. He claimed that the detained bulkhead did not belong to him, but rather to an individual named Sohag from Sarishabari, who had allegedly requested his assistance in recovering the vessel. Sarkar asserted that his group was ambushed by the opposing faction the moment they arrived at the location.
Mohammad Iqbal Hossain, the officer-in-charge of Sarishabari police station, confirmed that law enforcement units rushed to the scene upon receiving reports of the clash and successfully brought the situation under control. Police officials noted that they had no immediate confirmation regarding the reported gunfire and confirmed that no formal written complaints had been lodged by either party at the time, adding that legal action would follow once a formal grievance is filed.
