Jubo League, BCL men clash in anti-hartal procession
In an otherwise calm hartal yesterday, at least 10 people were injured in a clash between Jubo League and Chhatra League members during an anti-hartal procession in the capital's Rampura area.
Two of the injured from each rival group suffered bullet injuries.
The clash sparked around 11:00am when a group of pro-ruling Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists allegedly led by Mozammel Haq Topu attacked an anti-hartal procession brought out by Rampura unit of Awami League's youth wing Jubo League, police sources said.
The injured Jubo League activists are Nipun, Arif, Jahir Uddin, Jahangir and Shoaib Ahmed, said Rafikul Islam, officer-in-charge of Rampura Police Station. The groups clashed over gaining control in the area, he added.
The countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal was called by the Jamaat-e-Islami in protest against the Supreme Court's verdict that upheld the death penalty for its Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.
After the clash, alleged Jubo League men shot BCL activist Selim at Rampura.
However, when Selim's associates Saimon and Babul took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, some 30 Jubo League activists beat them up at the emergency unit of the DMCH around 1:30pm, witnesses said.
Additional policemen were deployed at the emergency unit of the hospital to prevent further untoward incident, said Sentu Chandra Das, assistant sub-inspector at DMCH police camp.
Detectives later held Selim and Saimon for questioning.
Mozammel Haq Topu, who allegedly led the attack on the procession, was named in a confessional statement of an accused in the murder case of retired additional superintendent of police Fazlul Karim. He was shot dead at his Rampura house in August 2013, said police.
Police on several occasions claimed that they were looking for Topu in connection with the case.
“Police had conducted multiple raids to catch him in the past. We are making an all-out effort to nab him. But he appeared suddenly and then disappeared. Maybe the police could not recognise him,” said Muntasirul Islam, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Apart from this incident, the city life remained almost unaffected during yesterday's hartal. Traffic on the city streets was light and only a few private cars plied. Public buses were seen plying as usual.
Most of the educational institutions, however, remained closed.
Rejecting the hartal, a faction of Gonojagoron Mancha, led by Imran H Sarker, brought out a protest procession from Shahbagh yesterday. BCL members also brought out a procession and staged a rally on Dhaka University campus.
In Chittagong, the hartal was peaceful without any untoward incident.
Educational institutions remained closed. A good number of public vehicles were seen plying the city streets while most of the private vehicles remained off the streets. Rickshaws were seen occupying all the streets and lanes and by lanes.
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