Police in a drive arrested chairman of Mawna union parishad Jahangir Alam in Sripur upazila of Gazipur on Wednesday night in connection with a case filed over extortion and abduction.

Police arrested Jahangir at about 9:00pm in the upazila.

As soon the as the news spread, the supporters of Jahangir put-up barricade on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway protesting at the arrest at about 11:00pm at Mawna intersection and burned tyres, halting vehicular movement on the highway, said Mahbub Morshed, officer-in-charge of Mawna Highway Police.

The vehicular movement on the highway remained halted till 2:00am.

On February 13, Zahirul Islam, manager of Fortune Cable Industries, filed a case against Jahangir and 12 others for abducting him and unleashing torture on him after failing to realise Tk 20 lakh as extortion.