The 48-hour general strike the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies started enforcing on Wednesday morning continued on Thursday amid sporadic incidents of violence at places across the country disrupting normal life and business.
The police kept the BNP's central office at Naya Paltan cordoned off for the second day to prevent opposition leaders and activists to stave off any 'subversive acts.'
The opposition lawmakers went on demonstrations
at the national assembly complex in protest at Wednesday's 'brutal attack' on the opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque.
The opposition alliance enforced the strike, which ends this morning, in protest against the scrapping the 15th amendment to the constitution and in demand for the revival of the provision for an election-time caretaker government.
The police said that at least 100 people had been arrested at places across the country on the second day of the strike. Seven of them were arrested in the capital, the police said.
A number of vehicles were burnt on the day.
Mobile courts that were in operation on the day jailed five people in Dhaka for their suspected involvement in picketing.
The BNP claimed that more than 100 of its activists had been arrested and about 175 had been wounded in police action on Thursday.
The party said that 400 activists had been arrested and 450 people had been wounded on Wednesday.
The party said mobile courts had jailed more than 6,500 activists to varying terms in the two days.
Seventeen lawmakers of the opposition BNP sat in on the driveway of the national assembly complex demanding arrest and exemplary punishment of the policemen who attacked Farroque.
The party's joint secretary general AM Mahbubuddin Khokan, also a lawmaker, led the sit-in that continued for an hour beginning at 9:30am. They later brought out a procession in the driveway.
Lawmakers at the demonstrations condemned the government for such unprecedented act of torturing a lawmaker and criticised the speaker for not visiting the injured Farroque in hospital.
They also criticised the home affairs minister as she did not bother to visit Farroque but visited the policemen who carried out the attack. Such an attack is a threat to democracy, they said.
Lawmaker Ashrafuddin Nizan said that the speaker had assured of taking necessary measures and had spoken to the suavely when they went to lodge a complaint with him. 'But we could clearly understand that he was helpless and has nothing to do.'
Policemen in riot gear moved along with the lawmakers and crossed past the entrance to the national carrying weapons but they were immediately pushed out by Jatiya Sangsad security people.
The police had cordoned off the BNP's central office since morning. The party's standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and joint secretary general Rizvi Ahmed stayed inside the police cordon.
The BNP and its allies darted out of allies into roads in processions and back at places in the capital.
The police arrested Masud Sheikh when he was trying to burn a bus near the water reservoir at Mirpur Section 10 early Thursday. Masud said that two people named Yusuf and Rubel had given him Tk 100 and assured him of paying more if he could set fire to the bus, the police said.
Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal activists brought out a procession on Panthapath about 8:30am, vandalised two buses and dispersed rapidly.
Chhatra Dal activists brought out a procession about noon at Mouchak and another group rallied at Bangshal. The police arrested a protester at the procession.
The police foiled small processions of the BNP at New Market and at Mirpur Section 10.
The New Age correspondent in Gazipur said that two buses had been burnt on Thursday. A bus of Balaka Paribahan parked near the Barshan Cinema was set on fire about 1:00am and the other of the same transport company parked near the west ramp of the Ahsanullah Master flyover in Tongi was burnt about 4:00am.
Ruling Awami League supporters, meanwhile, vandalised the local BNP office at Telihati of Shreepur in the district on Wednesday night when they brought out a procession against the strike.
The Telihati union unit BNP president, Akterul Alam Master, said that the office was closed during the attack and the AL supporters vandalised the office without any provocation.
Reports from Chittagong said that at least 10 people, including a policeman, were injured in clashes with the lawmen.
The clash began after three crude bombs were thrown into the policemen at Kazir Dewri in which havildar Kiran Chakma was wounded.
The police then attacked women activists present in the BNP office compound and beat them with truncheon. Nine of them were wounded.
In Rajshahi, the police foiled processions of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami and arrested 26 activists. Thirteen Jamaat activists were detained from a procession near New Market and 13 BNP supporters were picked up from Ward 2 of the city.
In Sylhet, the police picked up 20 pickets, including Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal joint general secretary Samiya Chowdhury, Sylhet city ward councillors Sahana Begum Shanu and Saleha Kabir Shepi and former wad councillor Kohinur Ahktar Jharna as they tried to bring out a procession at Zindabazar towards noon.
The police also picked up six activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its students' front Chhatra Shibir when they tried to bring out a procession at Mirza Jangal about 11:00am. Eight more supporters of the strike were detained from other places.
In Barisal, pickets damaged a truck, two buses, eight rickshaws, four auto-rickshaws and two human-haulers and tried to block roads by starting fire with tyres and by placing logs on the road stretches.
The Barisal Metropolitan Police said they had lodged cases against 150 pickets. No mobile court was in operation in Barisal on the day.
The rival factions of the district unit BNP went on demonstrations separately in support of the strike.
The correspondent in Jamalpur said that at least 27 people, including seven policemen, were injured in a clash between the pickets and the police at Baliguri Bazar at Madarganj.
Local people said that as a patrol team of the police suddenly attacked a crowd of pickets, the pickets pelted the lawmen with stones.
The police fired 28 rubber bullets and seven teargas shells to disperse pickets. Twenty leaders and activists of the BNP and its front organisations and seven policemen were injured.
The Madarganj police chief, Jamal Uddin, said that the injured policemen had been admitted to Madarganj Health Complex.
The correspondent in Noakhali said that the police had arrested 14 people and foiled processions brought out in support of strike and in protest at the attack on Farroque.
The police in Rangpur attacked a procession of the BNP in which 15 were injured at Kacharibajar in the town. The lawmen also arrested a man at the place.
The police claimed that they had dispersed the procession when the 'unruly activists' started damaging vehicles.
Reports from Bogra said that pickets in the town had damaged eight vehicles, clashed with the police, in which two policemen were injured, at Malatinagar. The police fired two rounds to disperse the pickets and picked up five from the place.
Another group of supporters of the strike hired a CNG-run auto-rickshaw from Shibganj and burnt it as it neared the town on Wednesday night. The police arrested two in connection with the incident.
In Natore, supporters of the strike stopped a truck carrying mangoes to Dhaka when it was going through the Natore bypass on Wednesday night. The bus was burnt.
The truck driver and his assistant managed to escape but a mango trader asleep on the mangos sustained serious burn injuries.
The trader, Mosharaf, of Ghoshal Shikdarkandi in Shariatpur, was taken to Natore General Hospital and was then shifted to the burn unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
The police then raided Tebaria in the district headquarters and arrested four BNP activists in connection with the incident.The arrested are Rafiqul Islam Pashan, Alam Bhuyan, Masud Rana and Mamunur Rashid.
Source : New Age
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