Sultan Ahmed (top); younger brother Iqbal

A Union minister’s brother held the New Market area to ransom during the morning rush hour, allegedly inciting a mob to attack police and block traffic to protest a relative’s arrest in a petty dispute.

Iqbal Ahmed, the younger brother of Trinamul Congress MP Sultan Ahmed and a Congress councillor in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, was allegedly absconding after the police pressed rioting charges on him for engineering the fracas on Free School Street.

“We are looking for Iqbal Ahmed and some of his supporters,” Samir Gupta, the officer-in-charge of New Market police station, said late on Thursday.

Iqbal, who allegedly had a large role to play in the street riots of November 2007 to oust writer Taslima Nasreen from the city, now faces arrest on the charge of inciting 250-300 people to attack the police while blocking the busy crossing of Free School Street and Marquis Street between 10.30 and 11.45am on Thursday.

He led the “near-riot” allegedly to teach the police a lesson for treating a relative, garments dealer Shahnawaz Alam, “like a criminal” while taking him to Bankshall court on Wednesday.

Brother Sultan claimed to be unaware of the incident. “In any case, his political identity is different. So why are you asking me about this?” the Union minister of state for tourism said from New Delhi.

Metro found Iqbal’s cellphone switched off till late in the night.

According to the police, the councillor of ward No. 62 spoke rudely to the officers-in-charge of New Market, Park Street, Taltala and Maidan police stations when they tried to persuade him to lift the blockade. Iqbal and his men heckled the deputy commissioner of police (central), Damayanti Sen, and her counterpart in the south, Rajesh Subarno.

Witnesses said an argument with the officers led to “pushing and shoving”, prompting the police to bundle three of the more aggressive protesters into a prison van. The mob then started pelting the cops with stones, injuring seven personnel. Two vehicles, including the prison van, were destroyed. A tramcar on route No. 22 was damaged near the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road-Ripon Street crossing.

An officer said Iqbal fled when the police used tear gas. The protesters dispersed soon after. Traffic started moving again by noon.

Hyder Ali Khan, the general secretary of the Free School Street Traders’ Association, claimed that the protest was meant to be a peaceful one.

Tension had started building up in the area on Wednesday afternoon, when announcements were made over a loudspeaker to keep all shops on Free School Street closed the next day to protest fellow trader Alam’s arrest.

Alam, who owns the readymade garments store Hip’s Wear next to the defunct Jamuna cinema, was arrested along with landlords Imran and Osman Parekh on Tuesday after they filed complaints against each other. Sources said an argument over an electric meter had led to fisticuffs, after which the Parekh brothers filed a complaint with New Market police station accusing Alam of snatching a gold chain.

When Alam was summoned to the police station, he filed a counter complaint accusing his landlords of stealing cash from his store. The police arrested all three.

According to a source close to Iqbal and Alam — their wives are said to be related — the councillor “took offence” to the police tying a rope around his waist to escort him to the court on Wednesday.