At least five people, including three children, were burned to death in a petrol bomb attack on a bus in Gaibandha in the country’s northern Rangpur division.
Our Gaibandha correspondent said the Dhaka-bound bus, which came under attack around 11pm, was under police escort when it was hit by arsonists.
The incident took place an hour after the Awami League Central Working Committee meeting ended, which decided to get tough against the BNP-Jamaat alliance’s ongoing blockade programme.
The Napu Paribahan bus had left Gaibandha Bus Terminal in a motorcade under police escort when it was firebombed in front of the Rural Electrification Board office in the Tulshighat area of Gaibandha Sadar.
Thirty passengers sustained burn injuries in the arson attack late yesterday.
Nineteen survivors of the attack were sent to Gaibandha Sadar Hospital and eleven were referred to Rangpur Medical College Hospital.
Sadar police station Officer-in-Charge Raziur Rahman confirmed the details of the attack to the Dhaka Tribune.
The OC said the arsonists rapidly dispersed and fled the scene after attacking the bus.
This is the second attack of the day in Gaibandha. Yesterday morning, pro-blockade activists torched two trucks near Polashbari Upazila Complex after forcing the driver and his assistant to get off the vehicle before burning the vehicle down, our Gaibandha correspondent reported.
New modus operandi?
In Jhalakathi, a local Shibir leader was arrested while trying to firebomb a bus travelling under police escort last night, in a seeming precursor to the Gaibandha bus attack.
Police detained the president of Shibir’s Rajapur unit in Jhalakathi, Taj Uddin, as he tried to hurl a petrol bomb at a passenger bus that was under police escort around 10pm.
The attacked bus lost control and fell into a roadside ditch, hitting Taj in the process and injuring him severely.
AFM Anowar Hossain, senior assistant superintendent of police in Jhalakathi and AZM Masuduzzaman, OC at Rajapur police station, took the critically injured arsonist to Rajapur Upazila Health Complex and then to Jhalakathi Sadar Hospital.
Four or five passengers received minor injuries, the Rajapur OC said.
Relative peace shattered
For most of the day, the BNP-led 20-party alliance enforced blockade and hartal had little impact on the lives of the people on its 32nd day, aside from a few stray incidents of violence across the country.
Law enforcers continued a crackdown on alleged anarchists in different parts of the country, arresting some 83 men of the BNP-led alliance for their alleged involvement in blockade violence.
In the capital, city dwellers experienced traffic jams on the roads, a sign of relative normalcy. Crowds of people were seen on the streets attending to their daily tasks.
Arsonists hurled a petrol bomb at a covered van on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in the Rampur area of Feni, our Feni correspondent reported.
The vehicle’s driver, Bachchu Hawlader, 28, received burn injuries in the incident.
He was rushed to Feni Sadar Hospital and later transferred to the Burn Institute at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Arrests continue
Meanwhile, a Shibir activist was held with petrol bombs in Noakhali yesterday, reports our Noakhali correspondent.
The arrestee, Md Sanaullah, was detained with two petrol bombs by locals when he was trying to hurl it at a CNG-run auto-rickshaw at Nuru Patowari Hat around 10pm, police said.
Locals caught him red handed and handed him over to police after giving him a mob beating, police said.
Earlier around 9:30am, several arsonists blasted crude bombs near the office of the assistant superintendent of police of Noakhali (Sadar) Circle.
Our Gopalganj correspondent reported that miscreants hurled petrol bombs at a micro-bus carrying a wedding party in the Kashiani area of Gopalganj yesterday.
The bomb, however, failed to explode.
Law enforcers yesterday arrested at least 83 activists of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami in Dhaka, Chittagong and Satkhira.
In Dhaka, 16 people, including 12 BNP and four Jamaat activists, were taken into custody at different places of the capital, said Masudur Rahman, assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
In Sathkira, 36 Jamaat leaders and activists, including two female activists, were detained in Jhaudanga union of Satkhira around 1am.
Sahanara Bari, 48, president of the Jamaat women’s unit of Jhaudanga, and Sukhtara, 36, a Jammat activist of the unit, were taken into custody, Golam Rahman, officer-in-charge of Satkhira Sadar police station, said.
Twenty-nine BNP, Jamaat and Shibir men were detained in different upazilas of Chittagong for alleged involvement in subversive activities.
Among the detainees, 12 were BNP men, four were from Jamaat and 13 were Shibir activists.
