News Desk
Commuters underwent immense hassles due to crisis of mass transport in the capital as well the rest of the country on Monday amid tension as the police restrictions and exchange of verbal threats between the leaders of the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP created an atmpsphere of panic.
Despite their earlier announcement of shelving rallies in view of the police ban on rallies and processions, leaders and workers of the Awami League had small roadside assemblies and rallies at different parts of the metropolis. Police remained active against BNP activists to prevent them from assembling anywhere.
Poilce hauled up some activists of the BNP from near the central office of the BNP, venue of the proposed rally of BNP-led 20-party alliance. In the morning an activist inscribed ‘down with autocracy,’ and ‘let democracy be free’ on his chest and back was hauled up from there.
- Pro-government Muktijoddha Prajanma League take position in front of National Press Club barely five yards from the police box seen in the background
- Police fire at demonstrators in the Bijoynagar area in Dhaka city on Monday
Some motorcyclists identifying themselves as Muktijudder Prajanma League took position in fromt of the National Press Club Dhaka. The members of the group had white ribbons tied to their heads.
Meanwhile, the pro-Awami League Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and the Dhaka Union of journalists held demonstration in the press club premise against what they termed as militancy and anarchy.
The pro-BNP BFUL and DUj held a demonstration in the same premise protesting the arrest and harassment of journalists.
Reports of battles berween BNP activists and AL workers from different parts of the country were coming in from different parts of the country as people passed anxious time. Ofice-goers who hadg one away from the city to visit their relatives during the weekend and the Eid-e-Miladun Nabi holiday found it tough to come back and the bus and lunch services were closed by their owners associations. Many people remained stranded at different placea across the country.
In fact an undeclared hartal was being observed everywhere.
UNB rerported: In the Malibgah-Mouchak-Mogbazar area in Dhaka city office goers are waiting in long queues in the morning as they could hardly find any bus plying the roads.
A limited number of rickshaws, CNG-run-auto-rickshaws and human haulers were plying the streets, but they charged excessive fares.
Nagis Sultana, who works in a private firm in Banani, said she had been standed at Moghbazar intersection looking a bus for about an hour.
The situation was no different in Mirpur and Shyamoli areas. Abu Raihan, a resident of Mirpur section 11, said failing to get into a bus since 9:30am, he tried to hire a rickshaw. “But the rickshaw pullers are charging excessive fares. One rickshaw puller demanded Tk 300 for a ride from Mirpur to Motijheel,” he said.
Additional police forces were deployed in important city points to avoid any untoward incident.
Meanwhile, inter-district bus and launch services from a number of districts across the country remained suspended since Sunday ahead of the BNP-led 20-party’s planned January-5 rally.
Defying the ban on all kinds of rally and gathering in the capital slapped by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), leaders and activists of the ruling Awami Leauge took to the streets on Monday.
UNB correspondents found that AL activists and leaders took positions at numerous points of the areas since morning. At some spots, the AL activists even set up pandals and played patriotic songs using loudspeakers. In front of the SiddeswariCollege nearby Century Archade Market, Chhatra League activists captured the main road blocking the road.
Talking to reporters at the AL’s Paltan headquarters about the presence of AL activists on city roads, its Metropolitan unit secretary general and Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya said Dhaka city residents came out of their homes to protect the city due to the incidents of violence last night.
AL acting secretary general Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif said AL activists have taken positions at about 200 spots in the capital.
The DMP on Sunday imposed an indefinite ban on holding all types of public rally and gathering in the city from 5pm on Sunday. According to a DMP press release, signed by its commissioner Benazir Ahmed, the ban will remain in force until further notice.
An Awami League office in Rajshahi was set on fire on Monday morning. Police detained two, including a local Jamaat-e-Islami activist, after the fire around 6:45am on Monday.
Another 12 other BNP-Jamaat activists were nabbed during raids in various parts of the city.
Boalia police OC Khandaker Nur Hossain said 25 to 30 masked men spilled petrol in the Awami League office next to the New Market in the suburbs around 6:45am.
Later they went away shouting anti-government slogans, said police quoting the locals.
The OC said they’ve had detained two suspects. One of them, Abdur Rashid Dewan, was a Jamaat activist.
Earlier miscreant vandalised a billboard of the Awami League in front of their Ward No- 30 office around 6am in Binodpur.
Meanwhile a hand-made bomb was exploded in front of the house of Ward No-30 Awami League General Secretary Shahidul Islam, said Motihaar Police OC Alamgir Hossain.
