3 vehicles torched in city

Two vehicles were torched on the eve of BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance 36-hour hartal in the capital.

Miscreants set fire to a private car around 5:30pm near Gulshan Shooting Club area, Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Gulshan Police Station, told The Daily Star.

Criminals set fire to a CNG-run auto-rickshaw at Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue around 5:30pm, locals told The Daily Star.

A passenger bus was also torched at Sony cinema hall intersection in Mirpur-1 around 7:30pm, quoting locals officials with the Fire Service and Civil Defence confirmed it to The Daily Star.

People in the area doused the fire immediately, the officials said.

The hartal was called on Sunday protesting the court order that sent eight top BNP leaders including acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir to jail in connection with “torching vehicles, assaulting police and preventing them from discharging their duties” during opposition agitations.

The leaders appeared before Dhaka courts and sought bails in the seven cases filed by police against them with police stations in the capital on December 9, 2012, and March 2 and 6, 2013.