As BDB polling agent Ratna Hossain, 25, reached the gate of her duty station Monipuripara Government Primary School at 8:30am, a group of ruling BNP's student front Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) activists pulled her down from her rickshaw and assaulted her, leaving her severely wounded, witnesses said.

Some voters rushed a badly wounded Ratna to Al-Razi Hospital and later to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

BDB leader Mahi B Chowdhury alleged at a post-poll press briefing that JCD cadres picked up another of its female polling agents from Boro Moghhbazar Government High School and punched her before confining her in the toilet of a nearby house.

As the JCD men threatened her of rape, some local elders stormed into the house and rescued her, he added.

Alliance candidate Mosaddek Ali Falu's supporters held Russel Ferdous, 25, vice president of Ramna unit of Awami Jubo League, as he went to Dhaka University's (DU) Curzon Hall polling centre at 12:15pm, sources said.

"They thumped me, snatched my cell phone set and Tk 5,000 as I worked for Kula (BDB's election symbol)," Russel told reporters after some DU students admitted him to the DMCH.

Some followers of the BNP nominee halted Shahnaz Parveen, publication secretary of Ramna unit of Awami Jubo Mohila League, when she was going to cast her vote at Curzon Hall centre at 12:30pm, another source said.

They beat up her before taking away her purse and scaring her off the area, the source added.