AL general secretary Abdul Jalil MP was addressing the meeting as chief guest when fighting broke out between supporters of expelled AL leader Joynal Hazari and their rivals.

Jalil was forced to take shelter under the dais as the two groups threw chairs and brickbats at each other, forcing the meeting to be dissolved after two hours at 2:00pm.

Hazari's men also assaulted AL leaders Iftekhar Islam and Abul Bashar.

AL leaders Obaidul Kader, Saber Hossain Chowdhury and Birbahadur MP had also addressed the meeting before the trouble began.

Chaired by acting president of the district AL Aziz Ahmed Chowdhury, the meeting was also attended, among others, by editor of Bangladesh Observer Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and journalist ABM Musa.

BSS adds: Former Awami League lawmaker Joynal Hazari, an accused in several cases under Feni Sadar police station, has been hiding in India since August, 2001.

He fled from the district only a few hours before a joint team of Army, BDR and police raided his 'Shoila Kuthir' residence at Mastar Para and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from there on August 16, 2001.

A day later, the then OC of Sadar thana Abdul Gaffar filed an arms case against him under the Arms Act.

The District and Sessions Judge court here recently examined four more witnesses in the arms case against Hazari. The four witnesses are Constable Shantosh Kumar, Assistant Sub-Inspector Alok Barua, Abul Kashem and Nazir Ahmed.

A court here on April 22 also asked law enforcers to attach the properties of Joynal Hazari and six of his associates accused in local journalist Tipu Sultan torture case. Investigation officer of the case Sub-Inspector Anisur Rahman submitted the chargesheet on April 16.