Job seekers staged a protest in Lalmonirhat's Patgram upazila on Thursday night, alleging widespread irregularities in the recruitment of enumerators and supervisors for the Family Card Census, briefly confining the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) to his office.

The protest erupted around 8pm on the Patgram Upazila Parishad premises after the publication of the recruitment results.

The protesters alleged that the recruitment process lacked transparency and merit, claiming the final results reflected favouritism, nepotism and financial influence.

They demanded immediate cancellation of the published results, a fresh and impartial review of the recruitment process, and the publication of a new merit-based result.

As tensions escalated, the demonstrators surrounded the UNO's office and confined UNO Md Tanvir Hossain for a short period while pressing for a review of the recruitment process and a fair investigation into the alleged irregularities.

They also demanded exemplary punishment for anyone found involved in corruption and warned of tougher programmes if their demands were not met.

Patgram Upazila BNP Joint General Secretary Shawkat Hayat Pradhan (Babu) alleged that there had been serious irregularities and corruption in the recruitment process for the government project and called for the immediate cancellation of the results.

He said MP Barrister Hasan Rajib Pradhan had assured the protesters that the matter would be resolved and had already begun discussions with the local administration.

Contacted by phone, UNO Tanvir Hossain denied the allegations, saying some protesters believed candidates from Patgram municipality had been favoured because more of them were selected.

He said the recruitment had been conducted transparently and that the protesters had calmed down after discussions.