At least one person was killed in Satkhira yesterday, as the final day of the countrywide 83-hour long blockade by the BNP-led 18 party alliance ended amid stray incidents of violence, clash, arson and vandalism in a number of districts.
Meanwhile, truck driver Nazrul Islam, who suffered 20% burn in an arson attack in Gazipur on Monday, died at the DMCH burn unit last night.
Local police in Satkhira said pro-blockade activist Hafizul Islam was killed yesterday morning during a clash between joint forces and BNP-Jamaat activists.
Police sources said the members of joint forces were attacked by demonstrators near Jhaodanga-Gobindokathi of the district, where the pickets had blocked the road by felling trees.
Law enforcers opened fire in defense, killing Hafizul on the spot, informed Kazi Moniruzzaman, assistant police superintendent of Satkhira circle.
However, Rafiqul Islam, union parishad chairman of Jhaodanga union, said Hafizul was a van driver who was killed while sitting on his van during the clash. But he could not confirm whether Hafizul was a Jamaat activist or not.
Joint forces also arrested seven Jamaat activists from different parts of Satkhira.
Meanwhile, in Dhaka, the district administration office came under a crude bomb attack yesterday, which left a court employee injured. Witnesses said two bombs exploded in front of two court room doors of an executive magistrate while another was exploded in the corridor of the administration office building.
The magistrate was not present in the courtroom during the attack but employees and others were present. Court employee Abul Kashem was injured and later taken to the nearby National Medical College Hospital for treatment.
Advocate Rezaur Rahman, a witness, said: “the doors of the courtrooms were burnt and window glasses shattered because of the bomb explosion.”
In this connection, Dhaka Chief Judicial Magistrate Court’s Officer-in-Charge Prosecution Md Asaduzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune that police were trying to identify the perpetrators.
With the exception of this incident of violence, the Dhaka streets regained their traffic volume as the day increased. Traffic congestions were seen in the intersections of Mirpur-10, Mohakhali and Sonargaon.
Train and launch services on all routes remained normal but only a small number of long-distance buses, especially the BRTCs, left the capital.
Meanwhile, in Faujdarhat area of Chittagong’s Sitakunda upazila, seven cattle were burnt alive when pickets hurled petrol bombs at a truck laden with 26 cows.
Iftekhar Uddin, officer-in-charge of Sitakunda police station, said pickets hurled petrol bombs at the truck around 5:20am, causing the driver to lose control and crash into five nearby shops – which were also burned down in the blaze.
Besides, Sitakunda police nabbed four persons from different areas of the upazila for their alleged connection with the sabotage on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in recent times, said the OC.
Meanwhile, a pedestrian was injured when pickets hurled several crude bombs at police in the city’s Muradpur intersection, said Shah Mohammad Abdur Rouf, assistant commissioner of Panchlaish circle in Chittagong Metropolitan Police. Later, police and blockade supporters locked into a clash near Bibirhat area, where police nabbed a Shibir man with six crude bombs, he said.
In Comilla, 10 people including four police personnel were injured during a clash between police and opposition activists at Langolkot area.
In Chandpur, seven blockade activists were detained while trying to block the railway and the Comilla-Chandpur highway.
At Roumari of Kurigram district, 15 people were injured in a clash between BNP and Awami League activists. The BNP activists vandalized a truck and five motor-bikes and attacked a procession by Awami League MP Jakir Hossain. The police detained Abdur Razzaq, organizing secretary of Rowmari upazila BNP, in connection with the attack.
In Natore, joint forces arrested seven pickets at Ahammadpur Bazar. Out of them, five were awarded one month’s jail by a mobile court.
In Sirajganj, the joint forces of RAB, BGB and police in two separate drives arrested at least 42 activists of Jamaat.
At Sailkupa of Jhenaidah district, the election office of Awami League candidate Abdul Hyee was vandalized and the furniture set on fire by unknown miscreants on Monday night.
