At least 15 vehicles were torched, 100 others vandalised, a score of crude bombs set off and several people were injured in indiscriminate incidents of violence on Saturday, a day before the 84-hour long countrywide hartal enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance from 6am on Sunday to 6pm Wednesday.
The opposition alliance on Friday announced a 72-hour hartal, demanding the upcoming elections be held under a non-partisan government. Later, it extended the hartal for another 12 hours, protesting the arrest of senior BNP leaders on Friday night.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the joint secretary general of the party, announced the extension at a press briefing held in the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters last morning.
Rizvi, who was in his office with some of the office staff, demanded the immediate release of party leaders and warned of “tougher” moves.
Mosharraf Hossain, a photojournalist from Focus Bangla, was injured last night when police fired teargas shells to disperse pickets who set off cocktails near the Bangshal intersection.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, the victim claimed that he might have received splinter injury in his right eye.
A youth sustained severe burns when miscreants lobbed a molotov cocktail on him in the capital’s Shahbagh.
Witnesses said Md Mithu, 22, peon of a private firm, was burned when he was returning home from office around 6pm.
According to police, the Fire Service and severeal witnesses, pro-hartal opposition leaders and activists brought out processions at severeal different venues around the capital and in other districts.
Miscreants reportedly hurled crude bombs at Brac University teacher Pias Karim’s Dhanmondi residence in the evening. Pias Karim claimed the miscreants also shot the watchman of his residence in the leg.
In the capital, at least 14 vehicles were set to fire in different places. Of them a BRTC double-decker was set to fire at Kutub Khali in Demra, another BRTC double-decker at Titumeer College in Mohakhali, a microbus at Khilgaon, two buses at Gulistan, a bus at Arambagh, a bus at Bongobazar, a bus at Agargaon, a CNG-run auto-rickshaw at Malibagh, a private car on Panthapath Road and two trucks at Sitakundu, Chittagong.
The BNP-led alliance men also brought out processions and clashed with police in Bogra, Chandpur, Comilla and different other districts leaving around 50 people injured. Meanwhile, protesting the arrest of BNP leaders, separate hartals were observed on Saturday in Pabna, Bhola, Feni, Noakhali and Comilla amid stray incidents of violence.
In Feni, BNP men observed a daylong hartal protesting the arrest of BNP chairperson’s advisor Abdul Awal Mintoo. They vandalised around 50 vehicles at Dagonbhuya Bazar, Silonia Upazila and Tulatuli Bazar area and exploded at least 30 crude bombs.
In Pabna, a daylong hartal was observed protesting the arrest of Shimul Biswas, special assistant of the BNP chairperson, when at least 30 people were injured in a clash between hartal supporters and police in Abdul Hamid Sarak area in town where the hartal supporters vandalised 20 vehicles in different places.
Moreover, clashes took place during the hartal programmes in Noakhali, Bhola and Comilla. As part of a crackdown, police arrested 14 leaders and activists in Narsinghdi, nine in Jessore and four in Jamalpur.