Police beat pickets out of streets

Activists take away demonstrators, injured in police clubbing during yesterday's hartal. PHOTO: STAR

At least 160 people were injured in police action on pickets as a third hartal in five days enforced by the Awami League (AL) and a front organisation demanding the quit of the government and protesting assault on demonstrators crippled life across Bangladesh.

At least 80 people suffered injuries as police used batons and teargas on pickets near the AL headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue, on Dhaka University campus and in Motijheel, Mirpur and Dhanmondi in the capital.

Another 50 were injured in a gunfight between pro- and anti-hartal activists in Jamalpur and 30 in police-picket clashes in Chittagong during the dawn-to-dusk strike that shut educational institutions, shops, banks and other businesses, stock exchanges.

Police-picket chases and counter-chases erupted in Narayanganj, Sylhet and some other towns.

The AL called the first hartal on February 12 to drum up support for its campaign to dislodge the coalition government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from power and force early general elections which are otherwise not due before October 2006.

It called another strike on February 14 and the latest yesterday in protest against what it said was barbaric police action on peaceful demonstrators.

About 120 people including former deputy minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury and Awami League legislator Ahsanullah Master were injured on February 12 and nearly 200 demonstrators, including Jubo League President Jahangir Kabir Nanok, were injured in the February 14 strike.

POLICE GO TOUGH

The law enforcers used batons to foil every attempt of pro-hartal pickets to gather and stage processions in Dhaka and picked up 204 from the city hotspots.

At about 8:40am, two groups of riot police entered the AL headquarters and baton-charged activists and damaged furniture of the office, leaving 40 injured.

At about 9:00am, police took position at the main entrance of the headquarters and put it under lock, blocking people from entering or leaving the office until the end of the hartal.

Police arrested 33 activists including some injured people there.

At about noon, police broke an attempt of pro-hartal activists to gather near Motijheel T&T Colony under the leadership of AL lawmaker Asaduzzaman Noor and AL's women's front leader Faridunnahar Laily.

An hour later, police attacked a gathering of the women activists at the Arambagh house of its leader Shirin Noim Punom, reasoning out that women from the house joined a pro-hartal gathering.

Law enforcers picked up AL activists and innocent bystanders from Dhanmandi areas and cautioned people by loudspeakers not to gather there.

Riot police put the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum and an office of Leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina in Dhanmondi under virtual siege during the strike.

Police forced their way into the house of former home minister Mohammad Nasim in the area at about 10:30am and charged baton to disperse about 100 activists who gathered there.

Witnesses said police picked up at least 10 women from the house and took them to Dhanmondi Police Station.

Nasim along with some other leaders tried to go to the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum but police swooped on them.

Nasim climbed onto a police truck that hauled away protesters.

"We will not leave the truck and the government has to either arrest us or free our supporters arrested in an unprovoked attack," Nasim said.

He and former ministers Abu Sayeed and Abdul Matin Khosru and pickets kept the truck occupied until 5:00pm when police drove the vehicle to Savar and dropped the leaders near the National Memorial.

Earlier, police baton-charged a procession of Chhatra League, the student front of the AL, when it was marching near the TSC at Dhaka University, leaving 10 activists injured. Police also arrested 11 leaders there.

Mirpur police arrested eight women AL activists including women Ward Commissioner Shahida Parveen Dipti when they tried to bring out a procession from in front of Purabi cinema.

Hartal supporters around Mohona, the local AL office, exploded several bombs and damaged the windowpanes of two busses.

In New Market area, a rickshaw-puller suffered burns to his head and face as hartal pickets threw a crude bomb in front of his vehicle.

Our Chittagong correspondent adds: At least 30 people suffered injuries when baton-armed police attacked processions in three places.

The trouble erupted when police obstructed pro-hartal processions at Darul Fazal Market near AL city office at about 11:00am, at Bondartila near Patenga at 9:45am and at Agrabad CDA Colony at 12:30pm.

Our Staff Correspondent from Sylhet adds: Chase and counter-chase between police and pickets at Court Point, Madina Market, Tilagarh, Ambarkhana and Shibganj marked the hartal.

Police fired five teargas shells to disperse the agitators at Court Point and picked up 15 BCL and Juba League activists from different areas.

Our Narayanganj Correspondent adds: Several Jubo League leaders were beaten up during the hartal.

JAMALPUR A WAR ZONE

UNB adds: About 50 people were injured in sporadic clashes between BNP-Jamaat and AL activists in Maderganj upazila headquarters during the hartal.

The trouble erupted at about 9:00am when BNP-Jamaat supporters from their anti-hartal procession allegedly attacked a local AL office.

The upazila headquarters turned into a virtual battlefield at about 11:00am when an armed clash broke out.

The offices of BNP and Jamaat along with seven shops were damaged and three motorbikes set ablaze in the clash.

Police fired five shots in the air to disperse the warring groups.

Vice-president of upazila AL Tabibur Rahman Suruj, President of Balizuri union AL Doulatuzzaman Dulal and Vice-president of upazila BNP Shah Alam Member were among the injured.

The AL called the stoppages after Prime Minister Khaleda Zia ignored its one-month ultimatum to meet 15 demands including check on crime, corruption and return of the public money the opposition alleges was looted.

Business leaders complain that the strikes cost the fragile economy tens of millions of dollars in lost output.

Some 7,000 police, including paramilitary units, were deployed to keep order during the latest strike in Dhaka.