Two pro-hartal activists were beaten by an angry mob during blasting crude bombs in the city’s Golpahar area yesterday evening, sources at police told the Dhaka Tribune.
According to witnesses’ accounts, three men riding a motorcycle went to Golpahar intersection and blasted four crude bombs around 5pm. “Angered by the attack, the locals chased the pickets, and managing to catch two of them, they gave the pickets a good beating,” said Atiq Ahmed, OC at Chawkbazar police station, which covers Golpahar.
However, the mobbed miscreants managed to escape and flee before police went to the scene, the Chawkbazar OC said, adding that they recovered the abandoned motorcycle.
Other than these two incidents, the first day of the hartal went uneventful in Chittagong. No untoward event had been reported in the port city or elsewhere in the district when this report was filed.
Police in overnight drives arrested at least 13 leaders and activists of BNP-Jamaat in different upazilas for their alleged connection with subversive activities, police sources said.
Life in the port city was normal; public transports were seen plying different roads, as well as a few privately owned vehicles.
However, most schools remained closed considering the safety of students; roadside shops and shopping malls were also closed.
The inter-district bus services also remained suspended in Chittagong city, but a few goods-carrying trucks ran on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway under police escort, according to the highway police.
Meanwhile, members of police and other law enforcement agencies were deployed at the important points in the city to avert any kind of sudden unrest, police sources said.
Police were deployed in front of the city office of the BNP to fend off any disturbances, said Shah Mohammed Abdur Rauf, assistant commissioner at Chittagong Metropolitan Police’s Kotwali circle. Police recovered 10 petrol bombs at Agrabad area in Chittagong city yesterday, the first day of the nationwide 72-hour hartal enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance.
ASM Nurul Talukdar, OC at Double Mooring police station in the port city, said police raided the CGS Colony in Agrabad on a tip-off and recovered 10 petrol bombs around 6:30am.
“Of the firebombs, seven were found behind a wall of a local club, and the other three were found inside a toilet of an abandoned house in the colony.