Awami League (AL) MP Sanowar Hossain yesterday brushed aside a media report that party general secretary Obaidul Quader had slapped him at the Padma rest house of Jamuna Resort in Tangail on Saturday night. “A newspaper published that false and fabricated news as part of a conspiracy to disrupt our party’s unity,” Sanowar told reporters.
According to the report, Quader had assaulted Hossain when he tried to defend a party MP from Tangail-4 (Kalihati), Hasan Imam Khan, who had invited the AL general secretary to stop over for refreshments.
On his part, Hossain said Quader was just aggrieved over indiscriminate sloganeering and the rush of party leaders and activists to greet him on Saturday night.
When contacted, Tangail district AL president Fazlur Rahman Farook said, “Our leader (Quader) was annoyed at Hasan’s absence. When Sanowar began to speak in Hasan’s defence, Quader bhai jostled him (Sanowar) and at one stage walked out of the rest house up to the gate.”
When contacted, several AL central leaders refused to comment on the incident, saying they were too embarrassed to do so.