At least 40 people, including children and policemen, have been injured after a verbal spat over the amount of bones in beef between a villager and a meat seller boiled over into physical a clash between residents of two villages in Brahmanbaria.
The intersection at Khatihata's Bishwa Road on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway transformed into a battlefield for about an hour on Friday morning, reports bdnews24.com.
Brahmanbaria Model Police OC Selim Uddin said the fight between residents of Sadar Upazila's Khatihata and Sarail Upazila's Kuttapara villages brought traffic at the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway to a halt between 10am and 11am, creating tailbacks on both sides of the road.
According to locals, a resident of Kuttapara village went to Khatihata Bishwa Road in the morning to buy meat from a shop. He subsequently had a row with the shopkeeper over the high amount of bones in the meat.
The squabble soon escalated into a full-fledged physical altercation with the customer and the trader gathering men from their respective villages, armed with weapons, to face off against each other.
Informed of the incident, police from Sadar Model Station and Sarail Station rushed to the scene and fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells to bring the situation under control.
Sarail Police OC Mofiz Uddin said, at least four policemen and 40 people were hurt in the hour-long clash.
"The situation is currently normal. Additional policemen have been deployed to the spot."