4 vehicles torched, 10 vandalised; 13 cocktails blasted; 15 detained
Pickets
vandalise a passenger bus at Farmgate in the capital during hartal
hours Thursday.The photo was taken when the bus was passing through
Purana Paltan in the morning. Photo: SK Enamul Haq
Vandalism,
cocktail explosion and detention marked the Jamaat-called half-day
hartal in Dhaka and Chittagong on Thursday while the daylong shutdown is
continuing elsewhere in the country amid the incidents of violence. In the capital, the incidents were reported from Postagola, Kazipara, Taltala and Paltan areas, reports our correspondents covering the hartal.
The pro-hartal activists torched a vehicle, vandalised eight others and blasted 12 cocktails in the capital.
The law enforcers also rounded up 15 pro-hartal activists from different parts of the capital.
In the Chittagong district, pickets exploded a cocktail, torched three vehicles and vandalised two others.
DHAKA
In Postagola, the Jamaat-Shibir men set fire to a human hauler around 6:25am, said fire brigade sources.
The fire had however extinguished before the firemen reached the spot, the sources added.
In east Kazipara of Mirpur, police detained four pro-hartal activists while they were trying to vandalise vehicles there around 6:30am, said Kazi Wazed Ali, officer-in-charge of Kafrul Police Station.
The pro-hartal activists also blasted several cocktails at Taltala area of Mirpur around 6:30am. Police picked up two activists from the area around 8:30am.
The Jamaat-Shibir men also vandalised a BRTC bus and two minibuses at east Kazipara area of Mirpur around 7:55am, said witnesses.
Police detained two pickets from Bangla Motor area while they were trying to flee the scene blasting several cocktails on the spot.
One of the detainees, Aktar Hossain, 25, claimed himself to be a student of Dhaka University.
Sirajul Islam, officer-in-charge of Shahbag Police Station, said Aktar with his another friend blasted cocktails in the area around 8:00am.
Police detained two pickets after they blasted two cocktails at Paltan intersection around 10:30am.
Near the High Court premises, pickets blasted four cocktails around 10:20am. Police later detained two of them from the spot.
Earlier around 8:00am, locals beat one pro-hartal activist Mohammad Sharif, 25, in front of Lalbagh orphanage.
Police detained the activists and sent him to Dhaka Medical Collage Hospital for treatment.
A procession of eight to10 people burned tyres in Topkhana Road around 7:00am.
Meanwhile, the activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League Dhaka city unit brought out a procession in Paltan area protesting the hartal around 9:30am.
Mijanur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari Police Station, said pickets vandalised at least five vehicles around 8:00am in Shanir Akhra area on Dhaka Chittagong highway.
Police detained two in connection with the incident.
The vehicular movements were thin on the thoroughfares, as private car owners and others preferred to keep their vehicles in parking areas fearing vandalism.
Huge contingent of police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel were deployed at each and every key point and streets of the capital much earlier the hartal started at 6:00am to maintain the law and order, reports our correspondent.
CHITTAGONG
Pickets exploded a cocktail and torched at least three vehicles and vandalised two minibuses in different areas in Chittagong, reports our Chittagong correspondent quoting police.
Pro-hartal activists exploded a cocktail in the port city’s Charagirmore area around 9:15am.
Jamaat-Shibir activists torched two auto-rickshaws in the city’s Laldighi and Chakbazar areas while pickets set fire on a minibus at Sitakunda upazila around 7:30am.
The pro-hartal activists also vandalised two minibuses at Patia upazila in the morning, told Tareq Ahmed, additional deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of police in Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
Police also foiled an attempt of Jamaat-Shibir men to torch a vehicle at the EPZ area in the city in the morning, he added.
Meanwhile, police recovered 12 cocktails from a place besides Chittagong Polytechnic Institute around 1:30am on Thursday, told Abdul Latif, officer-in-charge of Khulshi Police Station.
BACKGROUND
Jamaat is enforcing a half-day hartal in Dhaka and Chittagong and dawn-to-dust shutdown elsewhere protesting the "police refusal" to hold a rally before the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the capital.
Police rejected the allegation and said it was just an excuse for creating further violence.
Monirul Islam, joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said they had received a letter seeking permission for the rally, but police could not reach the person whose name and phone number were mentioned in the letter, reports ATN Bangla.
The war crimes trial has been a longstanding national issue. Ahead of the 2008 general elections, the Awami League pledged to try the war criminals if voted to power. The party won a landslide victory in the December 29 polls that year, and later the Jatiya Sangsad unanimously passed a proposal for the trial.
Among those facing the trial are some top leaders of Jamaat, which actively tried to foil Bangladesh's birth through helping the Pakistani occupation forces in committing mass killing, genocide, rape and other crimes against humanity. The party now looks determined to stop the trial by any means.
Seven top leaders of Jamaat, including its current and former ameers and secretary general, are behind bars on war crimes charges.
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