Opposition Jamaat-e-Islami sponsored day-long hartal ended amid marks of vandalism, arson, explosion, and sporadic chases and counter chases occurred between the law enforcers and shutdown supporters at different places across the country on Wednesday.
During the shutdown, enforced for the three consecutive days, unruly activists of Jamaat and its student affiliate Islami Chhatra Shibir vandalised and torched dozens of vehicles, exploded crude bombs, and set blockades on the streets.
Jamaat-Shibir’s mayhem went pick soon after a tribunal sentenced party’s Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed a death penalty for is involvement in the crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
In the capital, pickets set ablaze and vandalised four vehicles at Pallabi area while police held five suspected Jamaat-Shibir activists from the area shortly after the vandalism. The shutdown supporters made a fire on road by pouring petrol in Doyaganj area at about 7:35am.
Police later doused the fire.
A less number of vehicles hit the city streets while no long-route buses left or entered the city. Movement of vehicular started getting thick after noon.
Law enforcers took position at important points and were patrolling the city streets to fend off any possible trouble by hartal supporters. Apart from the ones in uniforms, plainclothes police were also there on alert with video and still cameras at different strategic points of the city to identify troublemakers during the daylong shutdown.
In Rajshahi city, Jamaat-Shibir ran riot at four places right after the tribunal pronounced verdict against Mojaheed. The protesters set up a road blockade in city’s Dingadoba area.
Meanwhile, police arrested 26 Jamaat-Shibir activists from three districts – Joypurhat, Khulna and Bogra while they tried to ran riot on the streets by ransacking vehicles and other public properties, reports UNB.
In Satkhira, hartal supporters blocked the Satkhira-Jessore Highway by setting fire on wooden and plastic objects at Ramchandrapur intersection in the morning.
In Natore, Jamaat-Shibir men set up a blockade on the Natore-Dhaka Highway by torching tyres while another group of shutdown supporters vandalised vehicles in Harispur area under the district.
In Chittagong, police nabbed three persons from in front of city’s Ansar Club area shortly after a crude bomb went off there.
In Feni, Jamaat-Shibir activists vandalised and torched at least 10 vehicles spreading panic in the town. Police arrested eight “activists” of Jamaat-Shibir raiding different places in the town.
Besides, Jamaat-Shibir activists set ablaze two vehicles in the morning in Narayanganj while pickets ransacked a pickup van in Noakhali and attacked a number of vehicles in Brahmanbaria.
