The BNP-led opposition-sponsored non-stop blockade of rail, roads and waterways starts from 6am today, the New Year’s Day, with a vow to “resist the one-sided January 5 election.”
The fresh agitation programme, which is the sixth in its kind since the election commission announced the polls schedule in November, was called Monday night following government’s use of excessive force to foil the opposition’s Dhaka march.
A few district units of the BNP observed demonstration called by the party yesterday.
Meanwhile, the local unit of the 18-party opposition alliance has called a 36-hour hartal beginning at 6am today in Bogra, the home district of BNP founder late president Ziaur Rahman, protesting the “confinement” of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Since November 26, the BNP-led 18-party alliance has enforced a nationwide blockade of roads, rail and waterways for 22 days in phases demanding the cancellation of the January 5 polls.
More than 120 people lost their lives in violent clashes, arson, blasts and killing that happened almost every day in the previous back-to-back blockades.
Yesterday, a victim of bomb blast Tuhin Chowkider, 38, succumbed to his injuries at Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital Barisal.
Police said miscreants hurled the bomb when he was going to Dhakakandi from his village home of Mathabhanga of Chardawlatkhan union in Madaripur around 12:00pm.
A Sub-Inspector of Kalkini Police Station Abdul Barek said they got two versions about the incident. Some locals said he himself was carrying the bomb while others said miscreants hurled the bomb.
They were investigating into the incident, he said.
Meanwhile, on the eve of blockade unknown miscreants hurled two Molotov cocktails aiming police leaving three passers-by and four policemen injured at Mouchak in the capital. Police fired several shots after the incident and picked up a suspected attacker from the spot.
Deputy Commissioner of Ramna Division police Maruf Hossain said the miscreants hurled the bombs at a police team on duty under an over bridge of the area in the evening.
The bomb hurt constable Aminur, Kamrul, Ibrahim and a traffic constable Shahidul Islam. The minor injured rickshaw puller, a passenger and a female pedestrian’s identity could not be known as they left the place following the incident.
Meanwhile, from Chittagong law enforcers in separate drives arrested 57 activists of BNP-Jamaat-Shibir in an overnight drive ahead of the non-stop blockade.
District police control room said that the opposition activists were arrested in separate drives from different areas of Lohagara, Satkania, Sitakunda, Bhujpur, Patiya, Anwara, Jorargonj, Fatikchhari, Rangunia and Mirsarai police stations of the district. Police claimed, of the 57, 32 Jamaat-Shibir men were nabbed from Lohagara upazila by joint force. All of them were involved in violence in the district during the opposition-called political programme in the recent times.
From Satkhira joint forces arrested nine BNP and Jamaat men. Among them, a mobile court has awarded a Chhatra Dal activist Ariful Islam, 20, to two years imprisonment.
Meanwhile, police opened fire on a BNP procession at Kaliakour Upazila in Gazipur yesterday leaving at least five activists injured.
Police said the activists tried to bring out a procession marking BNP’s countrywide agitation programme. At one stage a chase and counter-chase took place and police opened fire.
According to UNB, joint forces in separate drive arrested six opposition activists from Joypurhat, seven from Laxmipur district, 33 from Khulna, 22 from Dinajpur, 19 from Comilla and one from Sylhet.
On the other hand, 450 Jamaat-Shibir men were sued on charge of stabbing the general secretary of AL Sadallapur upazila unit of Gaibandha Shahriar Khan Biplob.
In a statement last evening, BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir called upon people to make the blockade a success to resist the “one-sided election”.
“The government has been behaving like an autocrat to oversee the voter-less polls,” he said. The joint-force, he alleged, engaged itself in “arrest business” and by doing this they were making quick bucks.