Hartal activists started setting off crude bombs and torching vehicles in the capital as the opposition alliance’s 84-hour hartal began on Sunday morning.
Nilufar Yiasmin, the mobilising officer at the Fire Service headquarter, said a passenger bus was set on fire at Diabari in Mirpur during the beginning hours of the hartal at around 6am.
Meanwhile the pro-hartal activists set another bus ablaze in front of Mirpur Bangla College at around 6am. They also exploded two crude bombs there.
Our DU correspondent reports: Hartal supporters exploded one crude bomb in front of New Market police staion at 2:15pm. New Market police station OC Yeasir Arafat said two miscreants riding on a bike blasted one crude bomb in front of the police station and left the spot immediately after the explosion.
Police and witnesses said members of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Chhatra Shibir were locked in clashes with law enforcers in Mohakhali, Sutrapur, Moghbazar and Azimpur.
At least 10 people were injured when Jamaat/Shibir members clashed with police in Moghbazar in the morning, while Shibir activists set off three bombs in Azimpur.
Police seized three handmade bombs from Shibir activists during the clash in Azimpur.
Shibir activists of the Jagannath University unit marched in procession at Narinda and exploded some crude bombs. They also set fire to the road.
Hartal supporters marched through the streets and exploded crude bombs in other areas, including: Jarabari, Mirpur, Badda, Demra, Hatijheel, Moghbazar, Chankharpool and Mohammadpur.
The 84-hour nonstop countrywide hartal, called by the BNP-led 18-party alliance to demand elections under a non-partisan government, began at 6am on Sunday and will end at 6pm on Wednesday.
The opposition alliance on Friday announced a 72-hour hartal. It later extended the hartal for another 12 hours, protesting the arrest of senior BNP leaders on Friday night.
Despite the deployment of extensive security – including thousands of additional police, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh personnel – offices, educational institutions and businesses mostly remained closed during the hartal. Only a few vehicles were seen on the roads.