Police arrested four people, including three BNP leaders and a Chhatra Dal leader, in Pirojpur over allegations of demanding extortion money from a contractor working on a power substation project. The detainees include former Kadamtala Union chairman and union BNP president Abdus Salam Sheikh, union Sramik Dal general secretary Raju Sheikh, former president Ashraful, and union Chhatra Dal president Hasib Sheikh.

Pirojpur Sadar police said Salam Sheikh was arrested in Dhaka with assistance from Rapid Action Battalion-10, while the other three were detained from different areas of Pirojpur and handed over to police. Pirojpur Sadar police station officer-in-charge Shariful Islam confirmed the arrests in connection with an extortion case.

According to the case statement, contractor Zakir Hossain began sand-filling work at the under-construction substation in Kadamtala village on August 13. He alleged that Salam Sheikh pressured him to take him as a partner and later demanded one taka for each cubic foot of sand. The complaint says that after Zakir refused, Salam and associates broke about one kilometre of sand-filling pipeline, causing an estimated loss of Tk150,000. The case names six accused and four or five unidentified people.