At least five people were killed and over 100 others were injured on the first day of the 60-hour hartal enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance on Sunday.
A Jubo League leader in Abhaynagar upazila of Jessore, a Jubo League activist in Pirojpur, a Swechchhasebak Dal activist in Faridpur, a Jamaat leader in Ishwardi of Pabna and a BNP activist in Bogra were killed in clashes between law enforcers, pickets and ruling party activists.
More than 130 people including law enforcers sustained injuries including bullet wounds in clashes across ten districts. Police arrested at least 34 people from five districts where the killings took place, and detained over 100 nationwide, including the capital. Of them, 20 were sentenced to jail terms by mobile courts.
In the capital, pro-hartal activists torched at least 23 vehicles.
During the day, six BRTC buses were torched in Gabtoli, two buses were set on fire in Savar and one each in Mirpur, Tongi, Jatrabari, Keraniganj and Ashulia. An auto-rickshaw and a pickup van were also torched in Tongi.
In the evening, a police vehicle was torched in Kamrangirchar, and four vehicles in Demra.
Picketers also set a human hauler ablaze in front of the Prime Minister’s Office at around 9pm. Also late in the evening, a bus was torched at Baridhara Norunbazar, a microbus in Zirabo, another bus at Tongi and one more bus at Agargaon, said Alamgir Hossain, mobilising officer of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.
Pro-hartal activists also burnt dockets of the Dhaka CMM court in the afternoon and hurled crude bombs at Dhaka South City Corporation’s zonal office at Khilgaon, injuring an employee.
Locals caught and beat up a picketer at Lalbagh, after him and his associate set fire to Lalbagh power sub-station at around 11pm.
An opposition activist sustained serious injuries while carrying a crude bomb at Kakrail to the chief justice’s residence, according to the police. A newspaper hawker received bullet wounds during a clash between police and pickets at Kaltabazar.
Miscreants also hurled a Molotov cocktail at Awami League’s Jatrabari unit office, blasted crude bombs in front of Nayapaltan BNP office in both the morning and the evening, and also on Dhaka University campus.
Awami League’s Uttara sector 6 office was set on fire in the evening.
Incidents of explosions were also reported from Kakrail, Mohammadpur, Tejgaon, Azimpur, Uttara, Moghbazar, Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Jatrabari, Lakshmibazar, Tantibazar, Jagannath University, Bongshal and Tikatuli.
Police recovered large quantities of gunpowder, 37 crude and petrol bombs and other bomb-making materials from the quarters of a Dhaka University employee at Azimpur in the afternoon. According to police, the explosives were stored there to be used in the hartal.
In Mugda, locals caught two opposition activists while they were trying to torch a car and beat them before giving them up to police.
On the other hand, the police also filed a total of 38 cases with the capital’s different police stations, including a case against BNP leader and former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, who was implicated in a case filed with Tejgaon police station in connection with an incident of arson at Karwanbazar on Saturday.
Biplab Sarkar, deputy police commissioner of Tejgaon Division, told the Dhaka Tribune that Khoka was implicated in the case after one Jewel, who was arrested with a bottle of petrol during the arson incident, confessed that he set the bus on fire at the directives of Khoka.
According to the Media Centre of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, the other cases were filed with Mirpur, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Kafrul, Darussalam, Ramna, Paltan, Motijheel, Demra, Jatrabari, Kadamtoli, Sabujbagh, Shahjahanpur, Gulshan, Bhatara and Uttara (east) police stations.
Violence outside the capital
In Jessore, Alamgir Hossain Shimul, 35, the general secretary of Jessore’s Noapara municipality unit of Jubo League, was hacked to death in front of a police camp. KM Ariful Haque, an additional superintendent of police, told the Dhaka Tribune the police had arrested five persons following the incident.
In Pirojpur’s Zianagar upazila, Shibir activists attacked Jubo League activist Swapan Shill’s home and injured him and his two children. Swapan died under treatment in hospital.
In Bogra, BNP activist Shahajahan Ali was stabbed to death in a factional clash of BNP, compelling the local administration to impose a section 144.
In Faridpur, Swechchhasebak Dal activist Maruf Hossain, 20, was killed when policemen under attack from pickets opened fire in Nagarkanda upazila. Two Rab members and 10 police sustained injuries in the violence that erupted in retaliation.
In Pabna’s Ishwardi, violent clashes between Jamaat and Awami League left Jamaat leader Julhash Hossain Munnaf, 30, dead and 30 others injured. Local Jamaat leaders claimed they had been attacked on their way to Dashuria, while Awami League leaders claimed Julhash was killed by a bomb he was carrying.
Activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir also severed the tendons of three activists of Chhatra League activists in Chittagong last night.
Imtiaz MK Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of the Mirsarai police station, said the Shibir men attacked Chhatra League men at the railway station near Nizampur College at about 7:15pm and severed the tendons of hands and legs of Ripon, 21, Rana, 27, and Faroque, 25.
Incidents of clashes, arson, vandalism and bomb blasts were also reported from Lalmonirhat. There were reports of clashes and vandalism from Netrakona, Noakhali, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Satkhira, Kurigram, Lakshmipur, Khulna, Gaibandha, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Natore.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance called the hartal from 6am on Sunday to demand the formation of an all-party polls-time government.
