A burning reminder

A car goes up in smoke in front of the BNP central office in Nayapaltan in the capital yesterday after criminals set it on fire. The car was set ablaze after a rally, protesting the shooting at BNP chief's Gulshan office the night before, had ended there. More photos on page 5. Photo: Amran Hossain

Jamaat-Shibir men yesterday went on a rampage in several districts, attacking police, torching and vandalising vehicles and blasting cocktails in protest at Sunday's arrest of Shibir President Delwar Hossain.
Meanwhile, BNP activists in the capital torched three vehicles, including a microbus of ATN News, and exploded seven cocktails shortly after a BNP rally in front of the party's Nayapaltan office, police said.
The main opposition party held the rally protesting Sunday night's gunshots "targeting" the BNP chairperson's Gulshan office.
The Jamaat-Shibir activists have been on the offensive since February 28, the day Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee was handed down the death sentence for war crimes committed in 1971. Since then, around 100 people, including policemen, have been killed in clashes between law enforcers and Jamaat-Shibir and BNP men.
Amid all these, the BNP-led 18-Party alliance and Shibir enforce a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal today, protesting Friday's killings in Sirajganj and Chapainawabganj and demanding the immediate release of their party leaders, among other things.
In Rajshahi city, the Shibir men in a demonstration of sheer brutality yesterday thrashed a policeman's head with his helmet and bricks during a clash, leaving three more policemen wounded, reports our district correspondent.
Jahangir Alam, the critically injured police officer, was in charge of Upashahar police camp.
On the eve of today's hartal, the Jamaat-Shibir activists vandalised a bus and a truck at Kapasia and blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway for about an hour from 8:00pm, said SM Moniruzzaman, commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police.
In Dhaka, unknown miscreants set six passenger buses ablaze at Begunbari, Sayedabad, Rampura, Farmgate, Adabor and near Bangabazar, a staff bus of Titas Gas in front of BGMEA Bhaban, a covered-van at Nabisco intersection, and a taxicab in front of ATN Bangla office at Karwan Bazar throughout the day, said police and fire service officials.
Around 12:00noon, a group of youths set fire to a double-decker BRTC bus used to carry Dhaka University students in front of Shahidullah Hall. No one was hurt in the incident.
At the BNP rally, party acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir asked the party men to leave the place peacefully around 12:30pm. But the demonstrators set ablaze the ATN News microbus, parked about 100 yards away the party office, said witnesses.
Solaiman, driver of the van, suffered burn injuries in the incident.
The agitators also torched another microbus parked near the news van and a private car parked on the other side of the road.
The BNP activists exploded at least three cocktails near the party office and four in front of Paltan Model Police Station, said Golam Sarwar, officer-in-charge of the station.
The BNP men turned violent without any provocation, he added.
But at a press briefing in the evening, Fakhrul claimed criminals supported by the government torched the vehicles.
In Gazipur, pickets torched a bus near Shibbari Mor around 9:00pm. Nobody was hurt as all the passengers got out of the bus quickly.
In Khulna, Shibir activists vandalised around 16 vehicles, including a police van, and exploded more than 10 cocktails in different areas, reports our Khulna correspondent.
Police and witnesses said hartal supporters riding bikes torched the police van belonging to Botiaghata Police Station near New Market area around 7:15pm and vandalised at least seven vehicles in the same area. A few minutes later, two more buses were torched near Ferryghat Mor in the city.
Earlier, Shibir activists vandalised eight auto-rickshaws and a bus and torched an auto-rickshaw on Khan Jahan Ali Road in the city around 8:00am after police intercepted their procession near Tootpara graveyard.
Police rounded up 72 Jamaat-Shibir men, including Prof Abdul Matin, nayeb-e-ameer of Khulna city Jamaat.
In Feni, around 30 Shibir activists vandalised five vehicles at Shahidullah Kaiser Avenue of the town around 11:15am when they reached there with a procession, police said.
In Bogra, unidentified miscreants exploded several homemade bombs simultaneously at Sherpur road, Upashahar and Borogala areas in the town.