The countrywide daylong hartal, enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance to protest the ‘foiling’ of its Gazipur rally and demanding the release of its arrested senior, is underway amid stray incidents. The hartal began at 6am and will end at 6pm today (Monday).
A female school teacher was killed after being hit on the head by a brick chip hurled by picketers in Noakhali Sadar upazila headquarters on Monday morning.The deceased was identified as Shasunnahar, 37, hailed from of Poragacha village of Ramganj upazila in Laxmipur district and a school teacher of Towhid Laboratory School in West Agargaon area in the capital.
In the capital, no untoward incident was reported and the vehicular movement remained almost normal until the filing of this report around 11:30am.
Activists of the 20-party alliance brought out processions in support of the hartal in New Market, Azimpur, Pallabi, Mohakhali, Malibagh and Goran areas in the morning.
Police foiled several of the processions and arrested 9 activists in connection with the processions.
Police fired rubber bullets to disperse a procession brought out by BNP activists near Pallabi Super Market in Pallabi area in the city around 8am, leaving one injured with the rubber bullets.
Later, the injured was taken to hospital and shown arrested.
Around 7am, pickets exploded a crude bomb at Mohakhali Kancha Bazar. No inter-district bus left the city during the strike.
In Bogra, vehicular movement was thin while shops and educational institutions remained closed.
BNP-Jamaat activists brought out several processions in different areas of Bogra city.
In Sylhet, police arrested BNP’s metropolitan unit convener Dr Shahriar Hossain Chowdhury along with two Chhatra Dal activists from Chouhatta Point in the city.
Kotoali Police Station officer-in-charge Asaduzzaman said they were arrested in connection with some crude bomb explosions in the city in the morning.
In Natore, hartal supporters set fire to tiers on the Natore-Dhaka highway.
Hartal supporters also brought out several processions in Natore town in the morning.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the shutdown programme on Saturday after an emergency meeting of the secretaries general of the 20-party combine at BNP chief’s Gulshan office.
A large number of law enforcers, including members of Border Guard Bangladesh, were deployed in the city.
The 20-party was scheduled to hold the rally at Bhawal Badre Alam Government College ground in Gazipur on Saturday as part of its countrywide mass campaign to mobilise public support in favour of their demand for holding a fresh inclusive election under a non-party administration. BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was scheduled to address the rally.
But the rally was ‘foiled’ after the local administration imposed Section 144 on the rally venue as the ruling party men took over the college ground to prevent BNP from holding meeting till remarks made against Bangabandhu by BNP’s senior vice chairman Tarique Rahman was withdrawn and decided to hold a rally at the same time.- UNB
