Three killed in clashes, arson attacks during hartal
Three people were killed and around two dozens injured during yesterday's nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.
There were clashes in several districts and at least seven vehicles were torched and 15 others vandalised.
A bus helper who was sleeping inside a bus was killed after arsonists set the vehicle alight early yesterday in Demra. An Awami League activist was stabbed to death during a clash in Lalmonirhat while a BNP leader fell to his death from a building when he was being chased by a mob in the capital's Mohammadpur.
The wife of a BNP leader died allegedly of a heart attack after police raided their home in Faridpur early yesterday.
Sporadic incidents of violence marked yesterday's hartal. A ward-unit office of the BNP in Khulna and a Sramik Dal office in Lalmonirhat were set on fire.
The fire service reported 45 fire incidents between 1:00pm Saturday and 6:00pm yesterday. At least 19 buses, 10 motorbikes, three ambulances, three pick-up trucks, and a truck were torched, it claimed.
Bus helper Nayem, 22, was killed and the bus driver was injured after unidentified arsonists set their vehicle on fire around 3:00am yesterday, said Demra police.
In Lalmonirhat, hartal supporters stabbed AL activist Jahangir Alam, 44, to death and wounded another during a clash between BNP-Jamaat activists and AL supporters, said district AL and the police.
Jahangir was a member of Gokunda Union unit AL and General Secretary of Lalmonirhat Sadar Upazila Load-unload Sramik Union.
Injured Raju Islam, 36, is a former general secretary of Mahedranagar union Swechchhasebak League.
Both of them were stabbed in the heads, hands, legs, and backs.
Jahangir died at Rangpur Medical College Hospital and Raju was in critical condition there.
Witnesses said the clashes broke out when a group of AL activists tried to chase away some 100 BNP-Jamaat supporters who brought out a procession and kept hitting shutters of closed shops with sticks in Mahendranagar Khan Market area.
The hartal supporters stabbed the two AL activists, said district AL General Secretary Matiar Rahman.
Omar Farooq, OC of Lalmonirhat Sadar Police Station, said police had to fire teargas canisters to bring the situation under control.
Around noon, AL activists, after a "peace rally", torched the district Sramik Dal office on Station Road. They also set fire to a rest-house owned by Lalmonirhat district BNP President Asadul Habib Dulu at Mission Mor.
In the capital's Mohammadpur, Abdur Rashid, the local government affairs secretary of Adabor ward-30 unit of the BNP, died after falling from an under-construction building.
According to eyewitnesses, a group of people set a bus on fire around 10:20am in Mohammadpur Town Hall area. After the incident, 10 to 12 people were seen chasing Rashid with sticks.
Rashid ran into the under-construction building and fell from the rooftop while trying to jump onto another building, said eyewitness Babul Miah.
Mahfuzul Haque Bhuyan, officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur Police Station, gave a similar account.
However, Aminul Haque, member secretary of Dhaka city BNP's north unit, alleged that AL activists pushed Rashid off the roof.
In Faridpur, 40-year-old Renjuara Begum died allegedly of a heart attack during a police raid on her home early yesterday.
Her husband SM Ikram Hossain is the rural development affairs secretary of Charyashordi union BNP unit.
Ikram said Renjuara, a government school teacher, was home alone and she fell ill when police went there looking for him and started ransacking the house. Relatives and neighbours took her to a hospital where doctors declared her dead, Ikram said.
Nagarkanda Police Station OC Miraj Hossain said they searched the house but did nothing that could cause panic. He said he was not aware of anyone's death.
In Bogura, Mohiuddin Mahi, 9, suffered shotgun pellet injuries to an eye, head and chest during a clash between police and pickets. The boy went to the scene near his home after hearing a commotion.
"My son can't see anything with his right eye," said Mohiuddin's father Abdur Rob of Kholaghar. Mohiuddin is the TMSS Medical College Hospital.
Witnesses said police fired from shotguns to disperse pickets who blocked the Bogura-Rangpur highway at Gokul around 9:30am and started vandalising vehicles.
The hartal supporters made announcements using horn speakers of a mosque and threw brick chunks at two ambulances, injuring six people including a child, said Superintendent of Bogura Police Sudip Kumar Chakraborty.
Police fired teargas and shot rubber bullets, he said.
Asked about Mohiuddin, he said they have to have a enquiry on how the boy got shot.
Around noon, pickets blocked the Bogra-Rangpur highway in Baghopara and threw brick chunks at Bogura Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Feroza Parveen's vehicle. She was unhurt.
In Natore, district BNP member Saiful Islam Aftab was shot by AL activists near his home at Station Bazar around 8:30am, claimed Natore district BNP convener Shahidul Islam Bachchu.
Aftab is at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
Police said they were verifying whether such an incident took place.
Incidents of sporadic violence were reported from Sylhet, Narayanganj, and Cumilla.
The BNP called the hartal in response to the police action that forced the party to abruptly end its rally in Nayapaltan on Saturday. Jamaat-e-Islami also enforced a nationwide strike separately in protest of police action and arrests of its leaders and activists.
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