At least 12 people, including two children, were injured in election violence yesterday as anti-election activists exploded at least 85 crude bombs at different parts of the city.
In Kadomtoli, at least five people including a 4-year-old girl and an ansar man, were injured when three crude bombs exploded outside a polling centre at Onirban Pre-cadet School around 9:30am.
The injured victims were identified as ansar member Yunus Ali, 22, local residents Ameer Hossain, 50, Ali Akbar, 28, and his daughter Jannatul. One of the alleged attackers named Solaiman Shah was also injured. They were admitted to different hospitals and clinics in the area.
However, Mazharul Islam, officer-in-charge of Kadomtoli police station, claimed only two people sustained minor injuries in the explosions.
At another incident in the capital’s Lalbagh area, a 12-year-old child lost his hand as he mistakenly picked up an abandoned bomb at Maorartek in Islambagh early in the morning.
The victim Md Raqib was first rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and later shifted to the Pongu Hospital.
Raqib had been working at a scrap shop and had been collecting scrap materials at 6am in Posta, witnesses said.
A female voter Nargis Akhter and three pedestrians sustained injuries in two separate explosions, near Sirajuddin Primary School and Badrunnesa University College respectively, around 10am.
Furthermore over 20 bombs exploded in Babu Bazar area, 30 at Abdullahpur’s in different places, 6 near Rupnagar Adarsha High School in Mirpur 12, three near Anneysha School in Khilkhet, three at the Uttara-Abdullahpur intersection, three near Nawab Habibullah Model College at Azampur, two near Daowai Madrasa polling centre, four at Bongshal, two at Fazle Rabbi Hall of Dhaka Medical College, three near Badrunnesa College, two near Ashraf Ali School, one at West End High School polling centre and one in Kamrangirchar.
Meanwhile, police fired over 50 shots to disperse some miscreants who attacked the Maleka Banu School polling centre in Uttara. However, no one sustained injuries in the incident and no one was arrested in this regard.
Nisarul Arif, deputy commissioner of Uttara zone, said police fired 30-40 shots to disperse the anti-election activists.
In another incident, locals caught two criminals when they tried to flee after hurling bombs at Abdullahpur, they were handed over to police after receiving a beating, the deputy commissioner added.
In Dholaikhal criminals torched pick-up van around 1:50pm.
Meanwhile, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists protested the elections by bringing out a procession near Fazle Rabbi Hall of Dhaka Medical College around 8am, they also exploded 2 bombs at the procession.