Law enforcers arrested dozens of opposition men, and mobile courts jailed several persons for disrupting public life across the country yesterday, the second day of the 48-hour countrywide hartal.
The hartal was otherwise largely peaceful.
Meanwhile, police yesterday refused to record a case from BNP against law enforcers for assaulting Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque on Wednesday, although the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police late that night filed a case against Abdin and others on charges of attacking the law enforcers.
The duty officer of the station, however, accepted a complaint filed by BNP lawmaker AMB Ashrafuddin Nizan on behalf of the party.
The two-day shutdown called by the BNP-led four-party alliance in protest against scrapping of the caretaker government system from the constitution ends at 6:00am today.
Talking about the police action on Abdin, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in parliament yesterday said she felt "really sorry" for the incident.
Hasina, however, said, "Nobody expected that an MP would throw bricks to damage vehicles. People expect decent behaviour from a lawmaker."
Also yesterday, the government formed a three-member committee to probe the police assault that left Abdin injured.
Speaking about the formation of the committee, State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku told reporters that they asked all concerned to act responsibly to avoid recurrence of such incidents.
Abdin was being treated at the Intensive Care Unit of United Hospital in the city last night. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of BNP, on Wednesday said Abdin needed 11 stitches in his head but it could not be verified from the hospital authorities.
Witnesses and BNP sources said police beat up and kicked the opposition leader severely at one stage of an altercation with him at Manik Mia Avenue in the capital around 6:30am on the first day of the hartal.
Police also tried to forcibly pick him up on their van but he fell on the street as the van started to move before he could be dragged onto it. Abdin's head was bleeding profusely at this stage.
But police said they tried to pick him up when he hit a police official, and that he might suffer injuries during the scuffle to prevent his arrest.
During yesterday's shutdown, opposition lawmakers staged a sit-in on parliament premises demanding punishment of the police officials responsible for the assault.
Shops, businesses and educational institutions were closed but traffic movement started to get normal in the afternoon.
The opposition men could not bring out processions on the thoroughfares due to heavy police and Rab presence but they brought out a few small ones in different alleys.
Like the previous day, police cordoned off BNP's central office at Nayapaltan and obstructed party leaders including Mirza Fakhrul from holding any processions and rallies.
In capital's Mirpur, police arrested two people for attempting to burn a bus. In Shahbagh, unidentified people burnt a bus around 10:00pm, fire service source said.
Hartal supporters smashed a number of vehicles and set ablaze two passengers buses at Ershad Nagar in Tongi.
Outside the capital, pro-hartal men in Natore set fire to a mango-laden truck leaving three people severely burnt.
Mosharraf, 22, a mango trader of Hazaribagh, was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with 95 percent burn injuries.
Natore police arrested four BNP men in this connection.
In Rajshahi, law enforcers picked up some 20 pickets from different parts of the city.
Addressing a press briefing at party's central office, Fakhrul Islam claimed that at least 550 BNP leaders and workers were detained during the two-day hartal and about 675 injured in police attacks across the country.
He also rejected the government committee formed to probe the police action on Abdin.
At a separate press conference at Jamaat central office in Moghbazar, party's acting Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam claimed that police arrested 200 Jamaat workers and mobile courts jailed 14 others yesterday.
The police headquarters, however, said law enforcers yesterday arrested 101 people from across the country including 16 from the capital while mobile courts jailed nine people including five in the city.
Although the four-party's hartal ends this morning, there is no respite in sight for the countrymen. After a two-day weekend, a 12-party alliance led by Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish will enforce a 30-hour shutdown from Sunday morning till 12:00noon of Monday in protest against dropping of the phrase "absolute faith in Allah" from the constitution.
Also, BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami will announce their next agitation programme today.
Source : The Daily Star
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