Under attack, yet again
A group of around 70 people yesterday attacked Khaleda Zia's motorcade with wooden sticks and threw brick chips at it in the capital's Bangla Motor area.
Abdul Qaiyum, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, and six of her security staffs were wounded. A window of the SUV carrying Khaleda was damaged partially during the nearly three-minute incident. The BNP chief was unhurt.
Earlier on April 20, Khaleda's motorcade came under attack by pro-Awami League activists at Karwan Bazar while she was running campaigns for BNP-endorsed candidates in the city polls slated for April 28.
Around 5:20pm yesterday, a group of alleged pro-AL men chanting "Joy Bangla" slogan swooped on the BNP chief's motorcade as it was waiting at the traffic signal of the crossing, said witnesses.
Five vehicles in the motorcade and two cars of two private TV stations travelling with those were damaged partially.
The BNP chief was going to Old Dhaka for electioneering for party-backed mayoral candidate Mirza Abbas in Dhaka South City Corporation.
Following the incident, Khaleda cancelled her programme and went directly to her party's Nayapaltan central office.
Two of the injured security staffs -- Shamiul Islam and Atiqur Rahman -- along with Abdul Mannan, driver of a car in the motorcade, were taken to the United Hospital.
Khaleda left her Gulshan residence at 4:50pm to carry out election campaigns for BNP-backed mayoral candidates Tabith Awal and Abbas in Dhaka North and South for the fifth consecutive day.
When the motorcade stopped at the Bangla Motor signal, the group reportedly led by two BCL leaders swooped on the vehicles, according to a media person who was travelling with Khaleda.
At least nine vehicles were moving with Khaleda's SUV that was third from the front. The BNP chief's security staffs were in the first four vehicles, and her adviser Qaiyum was in the fourth one.
The first five vehicles seemed to be the target of the alleged ruling party men. As soon as they started throwing brick chips at the motorcade, traffic police allowed the vehicles to pass, said witnesses.
But the vehicles couldn't proceed as the youths had surrounded those, they said.
Six of Khaleda's security staffs then stood guard around her SUV to protect it. As some of the youths hit Khaleda's SUV with wooden sticks, the vehicle sped away.
Khaleda's security staff Shamiul fell on the road and failed to board any of the vehicles in the motorcade that quickly left the scene. The unruly youths then beat him up. He was later taken to the United Hospital.
Around 7:30pm, the BNP held an impromptu press conference at its Nayapaltan office, and accused ruling party men of attacking Khaleda's motorcade with a “motive for killing her”.
Khaleda's adviser Khandker Mahbub Hossain said the government must bring the attackers to book and ensure her security.
After spending more than three hours at the party office, the BNP chief returned to her residence around 11:30pm.
On her way back, she visited the wounded security staffs at the United Hospital.
Talking to this correspondent, Moshiur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Ramna Police Station, said a team of pro-BNP lawyers led by Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon came to the police station last night for filing a case over the incident.
Police received the complaint and would take steps after conducting probe, said the OC.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Adorsho Dhaka Andolan, a platform of pro-BNP professionals, went to meet Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad but failed.
Journalist Abdul Hai Sikhdar, a member of the platform, told this correspondent that the team led by its convener Prof Emajuddin Ahmed went to the CEC's Baridhara residence around 8:30pm to lodge a complaint over “recent attacks” on the BNP chief's motorcade.
But a policeman there told them that the CEC was asleep. The team then handed him a letter addressed to the CEC.
"In the letter, we mentioned that Khaleda Zia came under attack thrice while she was carrying out city polls campaigns. It is the commission's responsibility to give directives to police to ensure her security as the force works under the EC during elections," said Abdul Hai.
ATTACKS ON ELECTION CAMPS
Several hundred supporters of Asaduzzaman Asad, councillor candidate from ward-21 in Dhaka South, allegedly attacked election camps of his two rival candidates in Paribagh area.
Asad, assistant secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League, didn't get AL blessing, but members of Dhaka University BCL unit have been campaigning for him, according to BCL sources.
Wielding sticks, rods and hockey sticks, Asad's supporters marched from the DU campus towards Ruposhi Bangla Hotel around 6:00pm, and vandalised the election camps of BNP-backed Khaza Habibullah Habib and AL-endorsed MA Hamid Khan opposite the hotel, said witnesses.
They also damaged Habib's car and a vehicle of private TV channel ATN Bangla.
They attacked Peacock Restaurant and Bar, and looted valuables and money from the cashbox, said Habib's brother-in-law Omar Faruk who owns the bar.
Habib's election camp was on the bar compound.
Habib's wife Nargis Mahmuda said Asad's supporters carried out the attack to create panic among the voters.
"Carrying sticks, rods and hockey sticks, they crossed the Shahbagh Police Station and returned to the university campus after carrying out acts of vandalism for over half-an-hour. We contacted the Shahbagh Police Station repeatedly but the law enforcers arrived just after they had left," she alleged.
Hamid told this correspondent that the attackers were Asad's supporters.
Asad, however, refuted the allegations and said none of his supporters was involved in the incident.
Contacted, DMP Assistant Commissioner of Ramna zone Shiblee Noman said he was unaware of such incident.
Despite repeated attempts, Sirajul Islam, officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station, couldn't be reached over the phone.
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