Twin blasts rock Shahbagh

Very few private vehicles are seen plying the city streets during Jamaat-enforced countrywide daylong hartal Monday. The photo is taken from Farmgate in the morning. Photo: SK Enamul Haq

Unidentified miscreants blasted two cocktails in front of the Shahbagh Police Station in the capital on Monday immediately after a procession of Gonojagoron Mancha protesting the Jamaat-e-Islami-enforced daylong shutdown passed the place.

No-one was injured as very few people were out there on the street during the blasts, said police.

Two people riding a motorcycle threw the cocktails and sped away, Shirajul Islam, officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station, told The Daily Star.

As Jamaat-e-Islami is observing a countrywide daylong shutdown since 6:00am, a few hundred people under the banner of Gonojagoron Mancha brought out an anti-hartal procession from Projonmo Chattor around noon.

Led by Imran H Sarker, a key organiser of the protest that began since February 5 demanding death penalty for all war criminals, the procession marched toward the Shaheed Minar defying the shutdown.

At the Shaheed Minar, Imran H Sarker announced that the Gonojagoron Mancha will return to Shahbagh on the day of the upcoming verdict of war criminals by International Crimes Tribunals.

The cocktails blasted as the procession retuned to Shahbagh after half an hour.

Demonstrators of Gonojagoron Mancha bring out a procession from Shahbagh intersection Monday protesting the Jamaat-e-Islami-enforced daylong shutdown. Photo: SK Enamul Haq

Jamaat has enforced the shutdown protesting an ICT's verdict that jailed three of its leaders for contempt of court.

Several cocktails were blasted in Azimpur in the morning while hartal supporters brought out a procession at Gopibagh in the capital.

The shutdown disrupted normal life and affected the economy and education badly. And it dealt a big blow to the poor, particularly the daily wage earners.

The presence of vehicles including buses and CNG-run three-wheelers on the city thoroughfares is more than other hartal days.

Most private cars kept off the streets fearing vandalism and the shutters of shopping malls and roadside shops remained down.

The city areas of Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet will remain out of the purview of the hartal due to the mayoral election slated for June 15.

BACKGROUND

Jamaat lawmaker Hamidur Rahman Azad and Jamaat acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan were sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and fined each of them Tk 3,000 on Sunday for their derogatory and provocative comments about the tribunals and ongoing trials there.