Police ‘ransack’ houses of opposition activists
Five people, under treatment for burns received in recent arson attacks, died on Saturday and Sunday in the capital.
With the latest victims, the death toll in the opposition-sponsored nationwide blockade on its 76th day on Sunday, reached 131.
The first day of the latest round of 72-hour general strike was also marked by stray incidents of violence and attacks on opposition activists’ houses, allegedly carried out by police.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance on Saturday called the fresh 72-hour shutdown from 6:00 am Sunday demanding release of leaders and activists of the alliance, including BNP joint secretary general Salah Uddin Ahmed, and stopping enforced disappearance, killing, abduction, repression and wholesale arrests.
The opposition alliance has been enforcing the ongoing countrywide transport blockade since January 6 to press for holding a fair and inclusive general election under a non-party government.
The opposition alliance has been enforcing shutdown on weekdays since February 1 to reinforce the slackening blockade.
Of the 131 victims, 70 were transport workers and passengers killed in arson attacks by suspected blockade enforcers while 40, mostly opposition activists, died either in police ‘shootouts’ or ‘road accidents’.
Three burn victims, who were injured in an arson attack on a truck in Magura Saturday night, died at the DMCH on Sunday.
Another burn unit patient, Shariful Islam, 35, who along with four others sustained burn injuries when a truck owned by Shariful came under firebomb attack at Ferighat area in Chandpur on March 18, died at the DMCH at 3:00pm Sunday.
The Magura victims who died were Raushan Ali, 42, Matin Biswas, 25 and Shakil Hossain Molla, 25, residents of Malikgram of Sadar upazila in Magura.
Raushan received more than 50 per cent burns and was declared dead by the on-duty doctors around 3:00am while another victim, Shakil, received 65 per cent burns and died around 12:00pm, according to the DMCH burn unit’s residential surgeon Partha Sankar Pal.
Nine workers including Raushan, Matin and Shakil, who were returning to Magura on a truck, received various degrees of burn injuries, as miscreants hurled a firebomb at their truck in Moghirdal on Magura-Jessore highway in Sadar upazila around 8:00pm on Saturday.
New Age Magura correspondent reported police allegedly ransacked houses and set fire to home appliances and furniture of at least 15 BNP leaders and workers in the district Saturday night during searches, allegedly in retaliation to Saturday’s firebomb attack.
District BNP general secretary Ali Ahmed’s wife Shamsunnahar alleged a group of policemen, led by assistant police superintendent Sudarshan Kumar, went to their house at Pakakanchanpur village under sadar upazila to nab Ali Ahmed.
‘As they did not find Ali Ahmed, police ransacked the house and set some of the home appliances on fire. They also verbally abused the female family members in the house,’ alleged Shamsunnahar.
Local BNP leaders and family members alleged policemen ransacked houses of another 14 BNP men, including the houses of district BNP’s senior vice chairman Monowar Hossain Khan, municipality BNP vice chairman and municipality councillor Masud Hasan Khan and the house of Chhatra Dal’s district unit general secretary, Firoz Ahmed.
When contacted, Sudarshan Kumar denied the allegation saying police cannot ransack anyone’s house.
Earlier, on Saturday night, a victim of Friday’s firebomb attack in Feni also died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital burn unit. The victim was identified as Mohammad Yusuf Khan, 55, a truck driver.
Quoting victims of the Feni firebomb attack, New Age correspondent reported that eight to ten miscreants had hurled petrol bomb at a fish-carrying pickup van at Matubhuiyan bridge of Dagonbhuiyan on Feni-Noakhali Sarak around 6:30am on Friday.
In the capital and elsewhere, the blockade observed loosely and daily life went on as usual despite fear of crude bombs blast and firebomb attacks.
Miscreants set fire to a double-decker BRTC bus at Farmgate in the evening. No one, however, was injured in the incident.
Suspected blockade enforcers charged crude bombs at several points in Dhaka including in front of the National Press Club and at Dainik Bangla intersection.
Highways witnessed healthy vehicular movement while trains and ferry services were unaffected by the blockade.
BNP’s ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami brought our several surprise processions and held brief rallies at different parts in the capital including at Mirpur, Uttara, Moghbazar, Kafrul, Badda, Banglamotor, Mohammadpur and Chawkbazar.
Law enforcers remained vigilant at different sensitive areas in the capital as elsewhere in the country to avoid any untoward incident.
In their regular drives, law enforcers rounded up over 100 activists of the BNP and its ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
New Age JU correspondent reported unidentified miscreants torched a commuter bus of the university on the campus early Sunday.
Samsul, a canteen boy of the campus transport office, said the bus was set on fire at the bus pool around 4:00am.
However, no one was injured in the incident.
The university registrar, Abu Bakar Siddique, said they were taking preparation to file a case soon in this connection.
The authorities have sacked an on duty guard for ‘negligence of duty’.
New Age Tangail correspondent reported at least 25 BNP activists were injured when police charged batons on a procession of the party.
Five of the injured were admitted to a local hospital. The injured included Tangail district BNP’s senior vice president Syed Shahin, BNP activists Moslem, Rasel, Aminur and Rubel.
Witnesses said police indiscriminately charged batons when the BNP men tried to bring out a procession at the municipality uddyan in the district town around 11:00am.
A local Awami League leader was injured as miscreants hurled crude bombs at the ruling party’s office on the KDA Avenue in Khulna city Saturday night.
Jamaat nayeb-e-amir Mujibur Rahman in a press statement urged countrymen to continue the ongoing blockade and strike to protest against ‘state terrorism, killing, disappearance, repression and mass arrest’.
He protested at the attacks on houses of the opposition activists including ‘torching of the house of a Shibir leader in Feni’.
With the latest victims, the death toll in the opposition-sponsored nationwide blockade on its 76th day on Sunday, reached 131.
The first day of the latest round of 72-hour general strike was also marked by stray incidents of violence and attacks on opposition activists’ houses, allegedly carried out by police.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition alliance on Saturday called the fresh 72-hour shutdown from 6:00 am Sunday demanding release of leaders and activists of the alliance, including BNP joint secretary general Salah Uddin Ahmed, and stopping enforced disappearance, killing, abduction, repression and wholesale arrests.
The opposition alliance has been enforcing the ongoing countrywide transport blockade since January 6 to press for holding a fair and inclusive general election under a non-party government.
The opposition alliance has been enforcing shutdown on weekdays since February 1 to reinforce the slackening blockade.
Of the 131 victims, 70 were transport workers and passengers killed in arson attacks by suspected blockade enforcers while 40, mostly opposition activists, died either in police ‘shootouts’ or ‘road accidents’.
Three burn victims, who were injured in an arson attack on a truck in Magura Saturday night, died at the DMCH on Sunday.
Another burn unit patient, Shariful Islam, 35, who along with four others sustained burn injuries when a truck owned by Shariful came under firebomb attack at Ferighat area in Chandpur on March 18, died at the DMCH at 3:00pm Sunday.
The Magura victims who died were Raushan Ali, 42, Matin Biswas, 25 and Shakil Hossain Molla, 25, residents of Malikgram of Sadar upazila in Magura.
Raushan received more than 50 per cent burns and was declared dead by the on-duty doctors around 3:00am while another victim, Shakil, received 65 per cent burns and died around 12:00pm, according to the DMCH burn unit’s residential surgeon Partha Sankar Pal.
Nine workers including Raushan, Matin and Shakil, who were returning to Magura on a truck, received various degrees of burn injuries, as miscreants hurled a firebomb at their truck in Moghirdal on Magura-Jessore highway in Sadar upazila around 8:00pm on Saturday.
New Age Magura correspondent reported police allegedly ransacked houses and set fire to home appliances and furniture of at least 15 BNP leaders and workers in the district Saturday night during searches, allegedly in retaliation to Saturday’s firebomb attack.
District BNP general secretary Ali Ahmed’s wife Shamsunnahar alleged a group of policemen, led by assistant police superintendent Sudarshan Kumar, went to their house at Pakakanchanpur village under sadar upazila to nab Ali Ahmed.
‘As they did not find Ali Ahmed, police ransacked the house and set some of the home appliances on fire. They also verbally abused the female family members in the house,’ alleged Shamsunnahar.
Local BNP leaders and family members alleged policemen ransacked houses of another 14 BNP men, including the houses of district BNP’s senior vice chairman Monowar Hossain Khan, municipality BNP vice chairman and municipality councillor Masud Hasan Khan and the house of Chhatra Dal’s district unit general secretary, Firoz Ahmed.
When contacted, Sudarshan Kumar denied the allegation saying police cannot ransack anyone’s house.
Earlier, on Saturday night, a victim of Friday’s firebomb attack in Feni also died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital burn unit. The victim was identified as Mohammad Yusuf Khan, 55, a truck driver.
Quoting victims of the Feni firebomb attack, New Age correspondent reported that eight to ten miscreants had hurled petrol bomb at a fish-carrying pickup van at Matubhuiyan bridge of Dagonbhuiyan on Feni-Noakhali Sarak around 6:30am on Friday.
In the capital and elsewhere, the blockade observed loosely and daily life went on as usual despite fear of crude bombs blast and firebomb attacks.
Miscreants set fire to a double-decker BRTC bus at Farmgate in the evening. No one, however, was injured in the incident.
Suspected blockade enforcers charged crude bombs at several points in Dhaka including in front of the National Press Club and at Dainik Bangla intersection.
Highways witnessed healthy vehicular movement while trains and ferry services were unaffected by the blockade.
BNP’s ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami brought our several surprise processions and held brief rallies at different parts in the capital including at Mirpur, Uttara, Moghbazar, Kafrul, Badda, Banglamotor, Mohammadpur and Chawkbazar.
Law enforcers remained vigilant at different sensitive areas in the capital as elsewhere in the country to avoid any untoward incident.
In their regular drives, law enforcers rounded up over 100 activists of the BNP and its ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
New Age JU correspondent reported unidentified miscreants torched a commuter bus of the university on the campus early Sunday.
Samsul, a canteen boy of the campus transport office, said the bus was set on fire at the bus pool around 4:00am.
However, no one was injured in the incident.
The university registrar, Abu Bakar Siddique, said they were taking preparation to file a case soon in this connection.
The authorities have sacked an on duty guard for ‘negligence of duty’.
New Age Tangail correspondent reported at least 25 BNP activists were injured when police charged batons on a procession of the party.
Five of the injured were admitted to a local hospital. The injured included Tangail district BNP’s senior vice president Syed Shahin, BNP activists Moslem, Rasel, Aminur and Rubel.
Witnesses said police indiscriminately charged batons when the BNP men tried to bring out a procession at the municipality uddyan in the district town around 11:00am.
A local Awami League leader was injured as miscreants hurled crude bombs at the ruling party’s office on the KDA Avenue in Khulna city Saturday night.
Jamaat nayeb-e-amir Mujibur Rahman in a press statement urged countrymen to continue the ongoing blockade and strike to protest against ‘state terrorism, killing, disappearance, repression and mass arrest’.
He protested at the attacks on houses of the opposition activists including ‘torching of the house of a Shibir leader in Feni’.
Source: New Age
