At least 15 people were injured as cricket fans went on the rampage and clashed with police in front of the United Commercial Bank Limited branch in the city’s Mirpur area after failing to collect tickets for the Bangladesh-India Asia Cup T20 final cricket match.
Witnesses said some 8000-10,000 cricket fans had remained in queues at the Mirpur-10 branch of UCBL to collect tickets since early Saturday.
As the bank authorities could not start selling tickets even when it was 11:00am, the cricket fans who were in queues burst into an agitation and threw brickbats at the branch building.
On information, police rushed in and charged baton to disperse them around 11:25am.
As the law enforcers tried to disperse them, a chase and counter chase took place between them and the cricket fans, triggering a clash that left 15 people injured.
Police fired teargas shells to disperse them. They also threw brick chips to police.
Later the agitating fans entered the alleys in the area and vandalised some vehicles.
Traffic on the busy road from Mirpur 10 roundabout to Mirpur-12 bus stand came to a halt for nearly one hour following the incident.
Police also detained 8/10 people from the spot.
After the day-long chaos, sale of tickets resumed at UCBL Mirpur branch at 4:30pm.
Assistant deputy commissioner of Mirpur zone of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Masudur Rahman, said the bank authorities managed some 500 tickets to calm down the fans.
Mohammad Nasir, a cleaner of Dhaka City Corporation, could fetch a ticket and he was coming out of the bank with a big smile on his face. ‘I came to the bank at 11:00pm Friday and finally got a ticket now,’ he said.
Source: New Age
Because our boys want to see the cricket final match, do we have to watch our boys get beaten by the Police, kicked, injured & taken in custody ??
Cudn’t the authorities do better than that ?