Pickets intensified their street presence and clashed with lawmen on
Wednesday, the fifth day of the third spell of rail-road-waterways
blockade enforced by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance.
The opposition alliance began to enforce the third spell of countrywide
blockade on Saturday pressing for cancellation of the election schedule
and holding the next general elections under a non-party government.
Road communications across the country remained suspended on the day,
also the 3rd day of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s general strike. Train and
ferry services on major routes were also disrupted.
Akhtar Hossain, 45, a poultry trader from Pabna,
was killed in Sirajganj when two trucks loaded with goods overturned
after being chased by pickets near a bridge on the western part of the
Bangabandhu Bridge area.
Around 400 were injured in the countrywide violence during the blockade.
Violence and fighting between protesters and the police and ruling party
men flared further during the 144-hour blockade as Jamaat and Shibir
men intensified their street presence, protesting against execution of
Jamaat leader Quader Molla, sentenced to death for committing crimes
against humanity in the 1971 Liberation War
Activists of the main opposition BNP and its ally Jamaat and Shibir
staged violent protests on highways and district towns and clashed with
the police at places including Khulna, Jessore, Norail, Bogra, Dinajpur,
Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet and Bandarban.
The capital remained virtually cut-off from other parts of the country
as pickets continued to block highways by felling trees at places and
setting vehicles on fire.
The inter-district buses and trucks remained off the roads with limited
train and ferry services, virtually disconnecting the capital from the
rest of the country during the BNP-led alliance’s protracted blockade,
scheduled to end Friday morning at 6:00am.
In Dhaka city, Jamaat and Shibir activists went on rampage by exploding
nearly 100 crude bombs and locked in clashes with the police at
Shahjadpur and Khilgaon in the morning. They set two CNG-run auto
rickshaws on fire. At one point, the police fired rubber bullets and
teargas shells and charged baton.
Crude bombs were also blasted on the court premises in Old Dhaka and at
other places including Fakirerpul, Shahbagh, Jatrabari, Bhatara, Gabtoli
and Uttara.
Un identified assailants activists snatched a pistol of a sub-inspector
at Shanir Akhra, confirmed Kadamtoli police sub-inspector Abdul
Khaleque.
Jamaat and Shibir activists also rampaged on the Haji Danesh Science and Technology University campus in Dinajpur.
In Khulna city, at least 15 people including five policemen were injured in a fierce clash at about 7:30am at Sonadanga.
The clash took place when the police swooped on Shibir activists for
putting up a road barricade disrupting movement of easy bikes,
auto-rickshaws and rickshaws.
The police fired rubber bullets and teargas shells as they came under
attack by Shibir activists. The clash continued for about 40 minutes.
Sonadanga police officer-in-charge Kamruzzaman claimed that his forces had fired sixty rubber
bullets to disperse Shibir protesters.
Khulna city Chatra Shibir president said that five Shibir activists,
including bullet-injured Golam Rahman, were arrested during the clash.
In Sylhet, Jamaat and Shibir activists clashed with the law enforcers,
exploded crude bombs, vandalised a shopping centre and a private bank
and torched two police vehicles and an ambulance on Wednesday, the
second consecutive day of hartal called by Jamaat. At least 20 including
a policemen were injured during the violence.
Sylhet Metropolitan Police arrested 32 Jamaat and Shibir men at places
in the city, additional deputy commissioner Mohammed Ayub told New
Age.
A platoon of Border Guard Bangladesh joined with the police and
dispersed the Jamaat and Shibir activists after firing a number of
rubber bullets and teargas shells and exploding several sound
grenades.
New Age correspondent in Sirajganj reported that the pickets also
torched at least three trucks and vandalised 20 vehicles on
Saidabad-Kadda-Nalka road, the western side of the Bangabandhu Bridge at
about 1:30am.
The pickets also up-rooted a sleeper of Khokshabari bailey bridge on
Sirajganj-Kazipur road and staged demonstration in early hours of the
day.
The New Age correspondent in Narail reported that sadar police station
inspector (investigation), two sub-inspectors, 5 constables and seven
Jamaat and Shibir men were injured in a clash between the police and the
activists of Jamaat and Shibir in Ghorakhali-Dumurtola area under sadar
upazila of the district.
The police and witnesses said that several hundred Jamaat and Shibir men
took position in the area and blocked Narail-Magura and Narail-Maizpara
roads at about 7:30 m. On information, the police rushed the spot and
charged baton and fired 80 bullets at the pickets, who reiterated with
charging crude bombs and throwing brickbats.
The New Age correspondent in Lalmonirhat reported that at least 250
railway clips of Lalmonirhat-Burimari route were removed in the middle
of Bawra and Patgram stations at Patgram upazila on Wednesday morning. A
Lalmonirhat station bound passenger train was stranded at Patgram
station, compelling the rail authority to suspend train service on the
route. (source)