Over 100 shops, 30 buses torched

 

Shops on the footpath in Paltan intersection burn to ashes as angry protesters set them ablaze during a clash with law enforcers in the capital on Sunday. Photo: Palash Khan

Jamaat-Shibir activists joined by Hefajat-e Islam men set fire to at least 100 shops and business establishments, looted shops at Baitul Mukarram mosque complex and torched over 30 government buses in the capital on Sunday.
Locals and police said looting was underway till 7:00pm when the report was filed.
Fire service and police officials said more than 100 shops and business establishments were torched in Paltan, Nayapaltan, Bijoynagar and Baitul Mukarram National Mosque areas in the evening.
Locals and police said the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, carried out the mayhem.

Instigated by the Jamaat and Shibir, a group of Hefajat men, who had earlier pledged to hold a peaceful rally at Shapla Chhatra in the capital, joined the vandals.
The demonstrators vandalised at least 50 buses of the public administration ministry and later set fire to over 30 of them on Rajuk Avenue in Motijheel in the afternoon.
Locals said the Jamaat-Shibir men joined by Hefajat activists around 5:45pm started vandalising the buses parked on the Rajuk Avenue and later set fire to the vehicles.
The agitators set fire to the ground floor of House Building Corporation building around 6:15pm, a fire service official told The Daily Star.