Unidentified miscreants yesterday set fire to a three-decker launch at Sadarghat launch terminal, injuring a person.
Abdul Halim, deputy assistant director of Fire Service and Civil Defence, said the attack was suspected to have been made by blockaders.
Nine cabins of the launch, MV Tipu 6, were gutted in the fire but none was arrested in this connection.
“The attack was made around 5:55pm and the fire was put out within 15 minutes. The watercraft was scheduled to leave the terminal for Pirojpur at 7:30pm,” Halim said.
Also in Jhalakati, miscreants hurled petrol bombs at a launch named MV Bangali from Gabkhan bridge around 3pm. None was hurt in the attack and the fire was doused immediately.
Yesterday was the 19th day of the indefinite blockade imposed by the BNP and was marked by sporadic acts of violence across the country, with the situation remaining almost peaceful in the capital.
In Narayanganj, three Chhatra Shibir activists were caught as they were about to hurl a petrol bomb at a bus at Kashipur of Fatullah on Dhaka-Narayanganj-Munshiganj highway at noon.
Locals beat the three - Shihab Uddin, 19, Fatullah thana Shibir President, Abu Sayeed, 35, and Mahmud, 25 - up before handing them over to police.
Narayanganj Model police station Officer-in-Charge Manjur Kader said the three were taken to Narayanganj Sadar Hospital where Mahmud remained in a critical condition.
Five petrol bombs and gunpowder were recovered from them, he added.
An autorickshaw driver sustained burn injuries in Chandpur when his vehicle was torched early in the morning.
The driver, Anwar Hossain, said he was travelling to Chandra from Chandpur Sadar but attackers set the autorickshaw on fire when he was forced to stop because of electric poles lying on the road. “I jumped into a nearby pond to save my life while the passengers on the vehicle also received injuries.”
The part of Anwar’s body from the waist to the knee was burned and doctors recommended transferring him to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Arsonists also threw a Molotov cocktail at a moving truck on Pennai road in Chandpur in the morning and torched a taxi in Ghosherhat which was carrying an expat.
The expat had a companion with him and all their belongings were gutted in the fire along with the vehicle.
Mohiuddin Mia, 45, a trucker, and his helper Md Rubel, 20, jumped into a roadside ditch to save their lives when the truck was set ablaze at Rupatoli in Barisal in the early hours of the day. The truck also fell into the ditch.
In Rajshahi, blockaders set fire to a bus and a truck at Kapashia area on Dhaka-Rajshahi highway.
Officer-in-Charge of Motihar police station Alamgir Hossain said RAB and BGB were escorting some 40 buses and trucks bound for Dhaka which came under an arson attack around 12:30am. Some passengers were hurt while alighting from the vehicles hurriedly.
Blockaders in Chittagong torched two trucks at Ananya residential area around 7:30pm, said Officer-in-Charge of Bayezid police station Babul Chandra Banik.
Police also lodged a case against 60 BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami activists, including Chittagong city BNP General Secretary Dr Shahadat Hossain and Chhatra Dal President Gazi Siraj, for Friday’s bomb attack on Chawkbazar police station.
Besides, police detained at least 12 BNP and Jamaat activists from Sitakunda, Mirsharai, Satkania and Lohagara upazilas for their alleged connection with subversive activities during the blockade.
In the afternoon, miscreants torched the office of the district unit of the BNP at Station Bazar area in Jamalpur.
Three vehicles - a car, a truck and a CNG-run autorickshaw – were vandalised in Kulaura of Maulvibazar in the afternoon. Blockaders also torched tyres on the road.
More than 30 people have died and around 900 have been injured so far, mostly in arson attacks, since the blockade came into force on January 6.
