Police arrested four people, suspected to be members of Jubo Dal, in connection with the demand of extortion from traders at a local market in Sreepur upazila of Gazipur on Saturday.

The arrestees are Hashem, 39, Asadul Islam, 24, Sumon Mia, 28, and Rakib, 26.

Officer-in-Charge of Sreepur police station Md Joynal Abedin Mondol said they arrested the four from separate areas of the district on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, a trader of the market, Hazrat Ali, filed a case against five identified people and 20 to 25 unnamed others with the police station on Saturday night.

A video footage showing the member of Gazipur’s Sreepur upazila unit of Jubo Dal Jahangir Alam asking traders of local MC Bazar to pay him extortion from now on Saturday went viral on social media.

In the video footage, he was heard saying, “From now on, MC Bazar will run under my control as long as I am alive.... now means now, my people will start collecting khajna (extortion). If anyone obstructs, there will be dire consequences. I don't care if someone took the market on lease. Right now my people will start collecting money.”

Preferring anonymity, some traders said wearing red tape on heads and covering faces with towels Jahangir and his 50 to 60 cohorts stormed the market at Saturday noon and demanded money from traders brandishing machetes.

Many traders fled the market in panic and some paid the money as per demand, they said.

Following this, the central executive body of the BNP’s youth wing suspended him from the party.