The 60-hour nationwide hartal, enforced by the BNP-led 18-party
alliance, ended at 6pm on Wednesday amid clashes, vandalism, arson and
crude bomb blasts across the country, leaving two people dead. On the first day, a Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activist, Nasiruddin, 22,
son of Mintu Mia of Sahebdanga, was shot dead during a clash with
police and Awami League workers in Patgram upazila of Lalmonirhat
while Mohammad Zakir, 30, commercial manager of ‘C&F Garment’ and son
of Ali Hossain of Dampara under Khulshi Police Station of Chittagong,
killed as a human-hauler overturned after being chased by pickets in
Chandgaon area.
According to reports reaching the Dhaka, at least 100 vehicles were
damaged, over 400 crude bombs blasted and over 500 people, including
20 cops, injured across the country during the 60-hour hartal. The law
enforcers also arrested over 200 people during the hartal hours. In
the capital on Wednesday, pickets blasted over 30 crude bombs at
different parts of the capital. Incidents of crude bomb blasts,
vehicle damaging and police dispersions were reported from different
parts of capital Dhaka, including Tejgaon, Khilkhet, Demra, Tikatuli,
Jatrabari and Jurain, although members of police and other
law-enforcing agencies, were deployed in large numbers on the streets.
The 18-party alliance enforced the shutdown at 6am on Monday to push
for its demand for arranging the next general election under a
non-party administration. Educational institutions and most shopping
malls remained closed, but government and non-government offices in
the capital were open with thin attendance. Rickshaws and
auto-rickshaws dominated the city streets during the hartal hours as
there was a little number of motorised vehicles available for the city
commuters. No long-route bus left Mohakhali, Saydabad and Gabtoli
terminals since morning fearing vandalism. Huge law enforcers
guarded the city streets to avoid any untoward incident. A large
number of law enforcers were deployed in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan
central office. Violent incidents like vandalising and torching of
vehicles, clashes between hartal pickets and police and ruling party
activists, arrest of opposition leaders and activists and crude bomb
blasts were also reported from a number of districts, including
Shariatpur, Laxmipur, Panchagarh, Rajshahi, Bogra, Chittagong,
Satkhira, Sylhet, Narayanganj, Dinajpur, Chandpur, Pirojpur, Bagerhat
and Tangail. The first and second day of the hartal were also marked
by incidents of violent clashes, vandalism and crude bomb blasts
across the country. All types of media and fire brigade vehicles,
ambulances and vehicles carrying hajj pilgrims were out of the purview
of the hartal. Earlier, the opposition alliance enforced another
60-hour countrywide shutdown from 6am on October 27 that ended amid
widespread violent clashes, vandalism, arson attacks and crude bomb
blasts, leaving 18 people dead and over 7,000 people injured across
the country. Meanwhile, addressing a press conference at BNP’s
Nayapaltan central office about the hartal, BNP acting secretary
general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir claimed that a Jamaat-e-Islami
leader, Abdus Samad, was killed in Satkhira by the ruling party cadres
during the last day of the 60-hour hartal. Besides, he said, police
arrested over 560 opposition activists across the country during the
hartal hours, while more than 2,081 were injured in attacks by law
enforcers and ‘ruling party cadres’. The BNP leader further claimed
that over 26,100 opposition men were implicated in fresh ‘false’ cases
and 34 activists sentenced to different terms of jail by mobile
courts. He also said four opposition leaders and activist were
killed and 6,071 injured by law enforcers and ruling party men since
November 3. – UNB
