At least six army men were injured, one critically, on Sunday night after the Ansar members suddenly attacked the army men deployed for the security of the Secretariat, an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release said on Monday.
This happened when, Ansar personnel held demonstration around the Bangladesh Secretariat on Sunday for nationalisation of their jobs.
Referring to the role of the army in the incident, the ISPR press release said that army troops were deployed to restore law and order and beef up security at different important locations and all gates of the Secretariat.
Around 10,000 Ansar personnel had gathered at different times on Sunday and surrounded the Bangladesh Secretariat and held seven advisers of the interim government and senior officers of the Secretariat hostage.
The director general of Ansar and VDP went to the Secretariat on Sunday to pacify the agitated Ansar members and accepted all the demands of the Ansar members, the release said.
However, the Ansar members did not leave the spot and confined the Ansar and VDP director general, and some of the Ansar personnel also attempted to enter the Secretariat by breaking the Gate No. 3.
The ISPR release reads that at the same time, the Ansar personnel also attacked with sticks and brick chips the students present at the spot and assaulted the army men deployed for restoring security of the Secretariat.
In the process six army soldiers were injured, nd one of them critically. "Despite repeated engagements with the Ansar members with patience, the situation escalated when the army personnel fired 27 warning shots into the air as the Ansar members did not retreat", the ISPR release reads.
Later, additional army troops were deployed around the Bangladesh Secretariat, who brought the situation under control by dispersing the Ansar personnel.
Later, seven advisers of the interim government, DG of Ansar, senior officials of law enforcement agencies, and all the officials of the secretariat left the area safely with the help of the army men.
The deployed army members took a number of Ansar members, who had intruded into the Secretariat and later sought shelter to save their lives, into their custody and later handed them over to the police.
