19 remanded, 44 sent to jail

Forty-four more, arrested in the incident, were sent to Jail hajat, court sources said.

At least 100 people were injured, 20 of them bullet-hit, when people of Boroikandi and villages were locked in a series of clashes that ensued after a fruit seller declined to sell grapes on credit to an alleged miscreant in the area.

Police lobbed 48 tear gas shells and fired 15 shots in the air to disperse the clashing villagers.

Two of the injured were later sent to Dhaka.

As none of the rival groups filed any case, the Kotwali thana officer-in-charge filed a case naming 63 and accusing another 1500 unidentified people.

Tension is prevailing in the area.

Meanwhile, Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, district BNP President MA Haque and influentials including Awami League leaders, Union Parishad chairmen and ex-chairmen on Sunday night held a two-hour arbitration meeting with representatives of the two villages, but to no result.

They will sit again on 18 April, sources in the area said.

The locals alleged that police arrested innocent people and those involved in the clashes escaped the police net. Some people who fought with firearms in presence of police were not arrested, they alleged.

Talking to this correspondent yesterday, they claimed that the clashes could be averted had police taken steps in time. Police knew when people of one of the villages had gathered for a feast at a local community centre on Friday night in preparation for the attack, they alleged.