Dhaka – The third day of the 71-hour rail-road-waterway blockade
programme, enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance, was marked by
stray incidents of bomb explosions, arson attacks and vandalism of
vehicles across the country on Thursday.
The marathon blockade programme will end at 5am on Friday.
The BNP-led opposition combine originally enforced a 48-hour blockade
programme at 6am Tuesday protesting the announcement of the schedule
for the next general election. However, the alliance on Wednesday
extended it by 23 hours.
According to reports reaching the UNB news desk, violent incidents
like vandalising and torching of vehicles, clashes between blockade
supporters and police and ruling party activists, arrest of opposition
leaders and activists and crude bomb blasts were reported from the
capital and different districts, including Sylhet, Laxmipur, Bogra,
Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur and Rajshahi.
Besides, train communications of north Bengal with Dhaka remained
suspended till Thursday afternoon as blockaders removed fishplates and
uprooted rail lines at Chhatiantala in Bogra districts early Thursday.
Meanwhile, train communications on Dhaka-Mymensingh, Dhaka-
Chittagong, Dhaka-Sylhet and Khulna-Dhaka routes, which were suspended
following the removal of fishplates from the rail track and uprooting
of rail lines, resumed after several hours.
In the capital, at least 17 people, including a reporter of private
television ETV Susmita Sen and her mother Gita Sen, sustained burn
injuries as a bus was torched in the city’s Shahbagh area during the
blockade.
Sources at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) said miscreants set
fire to the ‘Bihanga Paribahan’ bus near the Institution of Engineers,
Bangladesh around 5:45pm after pouring petrol into it, leaving its 17
passengers injured.
Besides, at least six crude bombs were exploded by the blockade
supporters in the city’s Azimpur, Laxmibazar and Pragati Sarani areas
in the morning.
The blockaders torched two vehicles — one bus and one truck — at
Paribahan near Ibne Sina Hospital in Dhanmondi area around 9:00am and
in Kanchpur Bridge area around 7:00am.
Several processions supporting the blockade were brought out by
Jamaat-e-Islami, Jubo Dal and Chhatra Dal activists in the city’s
Tejgaon, Bijoy Sarani, Azimpur and Mirpur-13 areas.
Later, police dispersed the processions.
Huge law enforcers were guarding the city streets to avoid any
untoward incident.
Meanwhile, addressing a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central
office about the 3rd day of the 71-hour blockade, BNP joint secretary
general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi claimed an opposition activist was killed in
firings by law enforcers during the third day of the blockade.
Besides, he said, police arrested over 350 opposition activists across
the country during the hartal hours, while more than 900 were injured
in attacks by law enforcers and ‘ruling party cadres’.
Over 6,000 opposition men were implicated in fresh ‘false’ cases, he
further claimed.
Rizvi said at least nine opposition leaders and activists were killed
and over 3,000 injured during the three-day of the blockade from
Tuesday to Thursday 4pm.
Earlier, the first and second days of the blockade were marked by
violent incidents like clashes, arson attacks, bomb blasts and
vandalism in different parts of the country that left 15 people dead.
– UNB
