The first day of two days’ nationwide hartal enforced by the opposition Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami was marked by stray incidents of vandalism, bomb blasts, clashes and arrests across the country, yesterday.
Some 15 vehicles, 16 houses and four shops were damaged; 48 crude bombs blasted, and 70 people injured across the country, according to UNB.
The law enforcers also arrested over 60 Jamaat-Shibir men during the first day’s hartal. The party activists torched and vandalised around 12 vehicles across the country throughout the day.
Alongside, they set off 27 cocktails from 6am to 4pm, according to officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
At least 10 policemen were injured at Rajnagar in Meherpur while 10 others injured at Garadora in Gangni in the same district as pro-hartal elements attacked the cops during the hartal hours.
However, there was no report of major violent clashes or casualties except some sporadic incidents across the country, sources added.
In the capital, there were incidents of chase and counter-chase between police and hartal supporters as Jamaat-Shibir men brought out processions in the city’s Jatrabari, Kalyanpur, Gulshan, Dhalpur, Azimpur and Gendaria areas.
Witnesses said around a dozen crude bombs were exploded in different parts of the capital during the hartal that began at 6am.
Police arrested two pickets from Azimpur area around 8:50am.
Meanwhile, five suspected Islami Chhatra Shibir men were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by mobile courts for picketing in the city.
Elsewhere in the city, pickets were hardly seen as additional security personnel, comprised of police and Rab, were deployed at all the key points and intersections to avert any untoward incident during the Islamist party’s shutdown.
Rickshaws and auto-rickshaws outnumbered the motorised vehicles on the city streets. The movement of commuters was less as many people failed to return to their workplaces from their village homes due to the shutdown just after the Eid.
The incidents of bomb blasts were also reported from outside the capital.
In Chittagong, hartal passed off almost peacefully with some stray incidents in the port city and the district.
Pickets blasted at least five cocktails in Halishahar and Kajir Dewri area in the morning attempting to create panic among people, police said.
Outside the city, the hartal supporters vandalised a private car at Sitakunda while the driver of the vehicle, Jashim Uddin, was inured due to the vandalism, said Samiul Islam, OC of Sitakunda police station.
Anti-hartal supporters were also seen in different points in the city.
Additional police, Rab and Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were deployed at both the port city and the district to evade any untoward situation.
In the port city, presence of vehicles on the city roads was thin in the morning but it increased gradually over the day.
Train services functioned undisrupted; however, no buses plied across the inter-district routes.
Most of the shopping malls remained closed during the hartal hours while activities of Chittagong port were normal.
In Meherpur, at least 50 people including an officer-in-charge and 25 other police personnel were injured as Jamat-Shibir activists clashed with cops at several points in the district Tuesday morning, according to our correspondent.
The clash occurred at Garadob under Gangni upazila while police were trying to clear the road.
Police, however, arrested two shibir activists from the spot.
BGB had also been deployed at Meherpur.
Police said at least 10 policemen were injured as Jamat-Shibir activists hurled bricks at them during clash at Rajnagar of the district.
In Rajshahi, activists of Jamaat-e-Islami took out whirlwind processions, torched truck and exploded cocktails in the early hours of Tuesday, according to our correspondent.
The Jamaat-Shibir called the 48-hour strike in protest against the cancellation of the party registration.
The strike passed loosely and peacefully in Barisal amid stray incidents, according to our correspondent.
Sporadic incidents of violence were also reported from across the districts of Laxmipur, Gaibandha, Chapainawabganj, Pirojpur, Khulna, Sylhet, Natore, Satkhira, Bogra Chuadanga, and Jhenidah.
Hours after the High Court declared illegal its registration as a political party, Jamaat on August 1 called the 48-hour countrywide hartal for August 12 and 13.
Later, it deferred the general strike to August 13 and 14.
