Chaos in Bhanga: Police flee to mosque as rioters torch offices over JS seat realignment

Chaos erupted in Bhanga of Faridpur on Monday as thousands of enraged locals, armed with batons, machetes, and native weapons, stormed government buildings, torched vehicles, and chased police personnel, forcing a dozen armed constables to flee for their lives into the sacred sanctuary of the Bhanga Central Eidgah Mosque.

What began as a protest over Jatiya Sangsad constituency boundary changes spiraled into full-scale urban warfare by noon turning the heart of Faridpur’s Bhanga into a smoldering battleground of shattered glass, scorched metal, and terrified officials.

Police hunted, mosque breached

Eyewitnesses described scenes of horror as police, bloodied by brickbats and stones, sprinted through clouds of smoke and deafening chants, desperately seeking refuge inside the mosque, only to be pursued by the mob.

“The crowd didn’t care it was a place of worship,” said a local shopkeeper, his voice trembling. “They smashed the gates. They screamed for the police to come out. It was like a nightmare.”

Inside, police crouched behind pillars as bricks shattered windows and angry fists pounded the doors. Only the intervention of madrasa teachers and mosque caretakers, who formed a human shiel;d around the trapped police personnel, prevented what many feared would become a massacre.

Streets turn war zones

The violence exploded after protesters, mobilised via loudspeakers and social media, flooded highways and blocked six critical junctions. Electricity poles were ripped from the ground and hurled across roads. Tires blazed in towering pyres, sending black plumes into the sky and choking traffic for miles.

By 1:00pm, the protest swelled into a seething mass, thousands strong, converging on the upazila’s nerve centers. First, they descended on the police station. Windows shattered. Motorcycles were flipped, doused in fuel, and ignited. Patrol vehicles became funeral pyres of twisted steel and melting rubber.

Then came the Upazila Parishad office – desks overturned, files set ablaze, computers smashed with iron rods. The municipality and highway offices suffered the same fate. Ambulances, meant to save lives, were reduced to charred skeletons.

Roots of the rage

The fury stems from a quiet bureaucratic decision the August 4 gazette notification by the Election Commission that redrew parliamentary boundaries, transferring Bhanga’s Algi and Hamirdi unions from Faridpur-4 to Faridpur-2.

To locals, it was an erasure, a political betrayal. For five days, they paralysed South Bengal: highways severed, trains halted, the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway fractured. 

Twenty-one districts felt the ripple, stranded travelers, rotting cargo, silenced commerce.

“We’ve been screaming for five days,” shouted one protester, face streaked with soot and sweat. “They ignored us. Now they’ll hear us in fire.”

Administration in damage control

As dusk fell, silence returned, broken only by crackling embers and the distant wail of sirens. No official statement came from local authorities.

Deputy Commissioner Md Kamrul Hasan Molla, reached by phone, offered cautious reassurance: “We are negotiating with community leaders. The matter has been escalated to the Election Commission. We expect a resolution within 24 to 48 hours.”

But on the streets of Bhanga, trust has turned to ash. The mosque still bears the scars of breached gates. The police station, a hollow shell. And in the eyes of the people is a warning: ignore us, and the next fire may not be put out so easily.