The first 14 hours of the 60-hour countrywide shutdown, enforced by
the BNP-led 18-party alliance on Monday, was marked by incidents of
violent clashes, vandalism and crude bomb blasts allover the country,
leaving two people killed. 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 UNB news desk, at least 40 vehicles were damaged, over 200 crude
bombs blasted and around 150 people, including 20 cops, were injured
across the country. The law enforcers also arrested over a 100 people
during the hartal hours as of 8pm. Incidents of crude bomb blasts,
vehicle damaging and police dispersions were reported from different
parts of capital Dhaka, although members of police and other
law-enforcing agencies remain deployed in large numbers on the
streets. In the capital, there were incidents of chases and
counter-chases between police and hartal supporters at different parts
of the city’, including Mirpur, Dholaipar, Jatrabari, Sayedabad,
Moghbazar, Panthapath, Bijoy Sarani, Tejgaon, Badda, Gabtoli,
Sobhanbagh, Nakahalpara, Azimpur, Kafrul and Bangsal. Besides, the
hartal pickets blasted over 50 crude bombs at different parts of the
capital during the first day hartal that began at 6am on Monday.
Deputy Commissioner (Media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Masudur
Rahman told UNB that 21 people were arrested for their involvement in
hartal violence and 10 of them were sentenced to different jail terms.
Meanwhile, unidentified miscreants exploded two crude bombs at the
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka while another two were
recovered from the Dhaka’s Judge Court Bhaban during the hartal.
Educational institutions and most shopping malls remained closed, but
government and non-government offices in the capital were open with
thin attendance. City commuters largely used rickshaws and
auto-rickshaws as a few number of motorised vehicles plied the
streets. No long-route bus left Mohakhali, Saydabad and Gabtoli
terminals since morning fearing vandalism. The shutdown caused
immense sufferings to people, mainly the commuters, in the capital for
lack of transports. The normal life of the day-labourers and
low-income people is also being seriously affected as they had to pass
their days amid unbearable hardship for lack of work. Huge law
enforcers have been guarding the city streets since the early morning
to fend off any untoward incident. A large number of law enforcers
were deployed in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.
Vandalising of vehicles, clashes between hartal pickets and police and
ruling party men and arrest of opposition activists, explosion of
crude bombs were also reported from different districts, including
from Patuakhali, Laxmipur, Gazipur, Bogra, Meherpur, Chittagong,
Brahmanbaria, Narayanganj, Lalmonirhat, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj,
Faridpur, Comilla, Jhalakati, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Pirojpur, Sylhet,
Rangpur, Comilla and Feni. Meanwhile, addressing a press conference
at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office about the first-day of hartal, BNP
acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir claimed that two
opposition men were killed in firings and attacks by the law enforcers
and ruling party cadres since Sunday evening to 4pm on Monday.
Besides, he said, police arrested over 500 opposition activists across
the country during the hartal hours, while more than 1,800 were
injured in attacks by law enforcers and ‘ruling party cadres’. Over
8,000 opposition men were implicated in fresh ‘false’ cases and four
activists sentenced to different jail terms by mobile courts, he
further claimed. The BNP-led opposition alliance enforced the
general strike at 6am on Monday to force the government for arranging
the next polls under a non-partisan administration. 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. – UNB
