Jamaat calls 48-hr hartal from today
Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday called a 48-hour countrywide hartal from this morning protesting government's “conspiracy” to kill its leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman while an alleged Shibir activist was killed in a clash with police in Noakhali.
A key component of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, Jamaat, announced the shutdown immediately after the Supreme Court upheld its previous verdict on Kamaruzzaman, rejecting his petition to review his death sentence.
On May 9, 2013, the ICT-2 had sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death for his crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
Jamaat acting Ameer Moqbul Ahmed, while announcing the strike in a statement yesterday, said ambulances and vehicles carrying dead bodies would be outside the purview of the hartal.
The party, which opposed Bangladesh's birth in 1971, also termed the allegation against its leader “false,” saying the government “did all preparations to award Kamaruzzaman the death penalty as partisan people gave testimonies before the court against him”.
SHIBIR MAN KILLED
An alleged Shibir man was killed and another shot in a clash with police in Noakhali Sadar upazila, hours after the SC upheld Kamaruzzaman's death sentence yesterday, reports our correspondent.
The deceased was identified as Noakhali Government College first year student Omar Farooq, 22, son of Nurul Alam of the upazila.
The clash broke out after police intercepted a Jamaat procession near Maijdee court area brought out around 11:30am protesting the SC verdict, said witnesses.
“The procession was brought out by some 10 to 15 Shibir men and they were trying to engage in vandalism,” Anowar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Sudharam Model Police Station, said.
“They opened fire on the law enforcers. Police were compelled to fire back,” he said, adding, after the clash they arrested three of the Shibir men among whom the two were shot.
Doctors at Noakhali's Abdul Malek Ukil Medical College Hospital declared Farooq dead on arrival. Rakib, the other arrestee, was being treated at the hospital under police custody.
Rakib, however, claimed that the allegation against him was false and he found himself into the clash when he was going to a bank to pay his electricity bill.
A case would be filed.
NARAYANGANJ
In Narayanganj, police detained an alleged Shibir man on charges of torching a bus hurling petrol bombs at it in Don Chamber area around 4:00pm.
None of the bus passengers was injured in the arson attack, reports our correspondent.
Police detained Yusuf Hossain, hailed from Madanganj upazila, when he along with other Shibir men was fleeing after hurling several petrol bombs at an Ananda Paribahan bus, Officer-in-Charge Monzur Quader of Narayanganj Model Police Station said.
After the bus was set on fire, fire fighters rushed to the spot and doused the flame, said witnesses.
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