Hartal call from rival sides
Buses set alight by pickets on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Naryanganj during the hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday. Photo: Focus Bangla
Gonojagoron Mancha and Jamaat-e-Islami have separately called a countrywide daylong hartal for today, protesting the verdict in the war crimes case against former Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam.
Their reasons for the protest, however, are entirely different.
Gonojagoron Mancha, which has been campaigning for capital punishment to all war criminals, considers 90 years in prison an inadequate sentence for Ghulam.
Jamaat, on the other hand, believes the ongoing war crimes trial is a conspiracy of the Awami League government to weaken the opposition. It demands that the former Jamaat chief be released.
Yesterday evening, Jamaat men brought out processions in different parts of the capital in support of today's hartal and vandalised at least three vehicles at Mohammadpur.
Chase and counter-chase took place as police intercepted processions of Jamaat activists in Dhanmondi and Lalmatia around 6:30pm, said police sources. Activists also brought out processions in Karwan Bazaar, Kalabagan and Shahjahanpur, said locals.
The party also enforced a countrywide hartal yesterday, marked by vandalism, arson and clashes with police. At least five people were killed and scores injured during the dawn-to-dusk shutdown, called in protest against the trial of Ghulam.
Of the dead, two were killed in Kushtia and two in Chapainawabganj. In Satkhira, a local leader of the ruling Awami League was beaten to death.
Even before the International Crimes Tribunal delivered its verdict, activists of the Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir were out on the streets to enforce the shutdown.
They removed fishplates, causing disruption to train communications between Rajshahi, Khulna and Dhaka for nearly two hours. At least five trains were stranded at Panchbibi and Parbatipur stations at that time.
Rail communications were restored around noon.
In Dhaka, at least 15 people, including seven photojournalists and television cameramen, sustained injuries, mostly by rubber bullets, during a clash that erupted between Shibir activists and law enforcers at Dhalpur in Jatrabari around 8:20am.
In Kushtia, two Shibir activists were killed in a mob beating when they tried to fell trees to block Kushtia-Chuadanga highway at Halsha in Mirpur upazila around 4:45am, said Sohel Reza, additional police super of Kushtia, as reported by our Kushtia correspondent.
They are Al Mukit Tarun, 22, and Mohammad Sabuj, 18. Both had been residing at Bamangari in Mirpur of the district.
Another person, identified as Saddam Hossain Farid, a first-year student of Chittagong University, was left critically injured in the incident.
Shibir Kushtia district unit president Rezaul Karim Nayan claimed that the deceased were Shibir activists and that ruling party cadres had killed them.
In Satkhira, Jamaat-Shibir men beat dead Abdul Aziz, 42, a local leader of Debhata upazila Awami League, around 11:00am when he was carrying shrimps to sell at Parulia bazar defying the hartal, said Joydev Chowdhury, additional superintendent of police in Satkhira.
Meanwhile, pickets put blockades on the Satkhira-Jessore highway at different points and vandalised and torched an AL office at Gazirhat in Debhata upazila at 7:00am.
A wedding vehicle plunged into a roadside ditch after pickets chased it at Binerpota, injuring at least 10 people.
In Chapainawabganj, a Jamaat activist was killed and four others were injured in a clash between Jamaat-Shibir men and law enforcers at Rasulpur intersection of Shibganj municipal area yesterday noon.
The deceased was identified as Nurul Islam, 43, of Mohodipur village under Shibganj upazila.
Police and witnesses said that as hartal supporters blocked Chapainawabganj-Sonamasjid land port highway at Rasulpur around 1:00pm, a patrol team of police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) tried to disperse them.
But Jamaat-Shibir men threw brick chips and exploded several hand-made crude bombs, prompting the law enforcers to retaliate by opening fire at them, which left Nurul dead.
However, Latifur Rahman, ameer of city unit Jamaat, said another activist named Ziaur Rahman had also been killed in the BGB firing. Ziaur, a 1st year student of higher secondary certificate of Krishna Gobinda College, succumbed to his injuries while he was being taken to Rajshahi, Latifur added.
In Chittagong, at least three people were injured, 22 cocktails blasted, four vehicles torched and three others vandalised.
At around 6:00am, a driver and a helper of a goods-laden truck suffered burns as picketers set fire to the vehicle on Sitakunda Bypass road, said police.
Pickets also vandalised at least 30 vehicles in Feni. A passenger and four pedestrians sustained injuries there.
Similar incidents of clash, vandalism and arson took place in Chandpur, Satkhira, Bogra, Pabna, Barisal, Jhenidah and Gazipur.
WITHDRAW HARTAL: FBCCI
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) yesterday described today's hartal undesirable and demanded that it be called off, considering people's sufferings during Ramadan.
In a statement, the apex trade body said Jamaat, Gonojagoron Mancha and several leftist organisations were transforming hartals into festivity during this month of Ramadan.
Shutdowns cause sufferings to those who fast, and disrupt transportation of consumer products, pushing their prices up, FBCCI said.
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