At least 10 people were injured in a clash between two factions of local Awami League over its council in Delduar upazila of the districtyesterday.

Ruling party lawmaker from Tangail-6 constituency Khandakar Abdul Baten, and president of the district unit of AL Alamgir Khan Menu also faced an odd situation during the incident.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells to bring the situation under control, said Chand Miah, officer-in-charge of Delduar Police Station, adding that additional police personnel have been deployed in the area to avert any further trouble.

The injured include Rafiqul Islam, office secretary of the district unit of AL, and Nazmul Huda Nabin, president of district

unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League.

The three-yearly council of Delduar upazila AL was scheduled to be held on the upazila parishad premises yesterday after 12 years but it was later suspended following the clash, said party sources.

Upazila unit president Khandakar Fazlul Haque and general secretary Sirajul Islam Mallik led the last council of the party held in 2003.

Being informed that the supporters of the lawmaker yesterday tried to form a new committee in an 'undemocratic way', the central leaders of the party asked for suspension of the council, said Fazlul Haque, convener of the council preparation committee.

The committee recently formed new committees in eight unions and 72 wards and later made prepara-

tions to form the upazila committee.

A group of the party men backed by lawmaker Baten, however, opposed the new committee formation and formed an 11-member council preparation committee through the district committee.

Later, separate committees of the eight unions and 72 wards were formed by two joint conveners of the preparation committee-Abul Kalam Siddique and M Shiblee Sadik-supported by Baten.

The separate committees formed by the both groups for the unions and wards had been running simultaneously in the upazila.

Contacted, the lawmaker blamed Fazlul-Mallik group for the attack as they wanted to form the committee thorough voting in a council while the group wanted to form it through selection.