Rumeen Farhana faces obstructions to pay tribute in Brahmanbaria

Newly elected independent Member of Parliament Barrister Rumeen Farhana was obstructed while attempting to pay tribute to language martyrs in Sarail of Brahmanbaria.

The incident took place at the Central Shaheed Minar in Sarail late Friday night (February 21).

Farhana, elected from the Brahmanbaria-2 constituency, arrived at the memorial with her supporters to pay homage to the language martyrs on International Mother Language Day.

According to locals, a group of activists, allegedly led by Anwar Hossain Master, a former general secretary of the local unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), gathered at the site and created a tense situation, obstructing her from placing flowers.

To avoid further escalation, the lawmaker left the premises without offering the tribute.

In response, her supporters staged a blockade on the Dhaka–Sylhet highway in the Shahbazpur area around 12:30am. The road remained closed for nearly an hour, causing traffic congestion stretching about 10 kilometres on both sides and leading to significant disruption for commuters.

Police later intervened and restored normal traffic movement.

Farhana alleged that the incident was a deliberate attempt to harass her following the election and warned that failure to restrain party activists could aggravate tensions. She said legal action was being prepared over the incident and claimed that one of her supporters was injured.

Manjur Kader Bhuiyan, officer-in-chrage (OC) of Sarail Police Station, said, police responded promptly after being informed and brought the situation under control.

"Legal steps would be taken against those responsible and that additional police had been deployed in the area to maintain order," he added.