A total of 95 vehicles came under attack in the capital since January 4 till yesterday night, with the majority of those attacked in the evening and afterwards, according to police and Fire Service statistics.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia announced an indefinite blockade across the country from January 6, but vehicles have been set on fire since January 4.
Statistics on the attacks show that those mostly took place between 2pm and 9pm.
Requesting anonymity, a top Dhaka Metropolitan Police official told the Dhaka Tribune that transport-related violence would mostly be perpetrated early in the morning during blockades and general strikes in the past but the recent attacks were made after the sunset for the most part.
“The trend is such because officers experience burnout after working all day. They usually do not stay fully alert at the time and that is the chance miscreants take,” he said.
DMP sources said officers who discharge duties at night take over around 8pm but the daytime officers get exhausted after 6pm and hence surveillance becomes loose.
On January 4, miscreants set fire to 17 vehicles and vandalised six buses. On January 5, seven buses were torched and six vehicles were vandalised.
The number of buses set ablaze on January 6 was 17 and two vehicles were also vandalised. 11 vehicles were set on fire January 7.
On January 8, 23 vehicles were torched while on January 9, nine vehicles were set on fire and another one was vandalised.
Eleven vehicles were torched till 9pm yesterday.
DMP Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune police surveil key spots of the capital to maintain law and order.
“We also have a host of plain-clothes officers who work to avert any possible attacks. But miscreants generally makes attacks abruptly and leave the scenes straight away,” he said.
“We are trying our best to prevent such attacks and are optimistic that we will be able to make headway shortly,” added Masudur.
