13 hurt as criminals clash with cops

At least 13 people including seven policemen were injured in a clash between law enforcers and accomplices of criminals and villagers, who tried to snatch criminals from the clutches of the lawmen, in Melandah upazila of Jamalpur early Thursday.
Melandah police chief Bellal Hossain claimed that the accomplices of criminals and villagers armed with local weapons swooped on them when he with a team of 20 police personnel conducted a raid at remote Kaijkata char area of the upazila to nab some criminals accused in a number of criminal cases around 1:15am and arrested two of them--Babul Miah and Amzad Hossain.
When they were trying to return to the police station with the arrestees, they attacked them with sharp weapons, prompting the lawmen to fire blank to disperse them, our Tangail correspondent reports quoting the OC.
At one stage, the villagers managed to snatch Amzad, compelling the police to fire 18 rounds of bullets in a bid to self-defence. Six villagers including a woman sustained bullet injuries in the incident while seven policemen were also injured in the attack on them, the OC claimed.
Injured Assistant Sub-inspector Shuvro Saha and Constable Chand Miah admitted to Jamalpur Police Line Hospital and the injured villagers were sent to Jamalpur General Hospital.