Announced all of a sudden the night before, the opposition’s three-day blockade left at least four people killed and put tens of thousands of travellers across the country in peril on its first day yesterday.
Many people were bewildered after reaching inter-district bus terminals early in the morning having no idea of the fresh blockade, called hours after another ended on Friday morning.
Passengers of long-route buses suffered most as vehicles that hit the roads soon after the previous blockade got stuck at different points all over the country.
The trucks and lorries laden with perishable goods, particularly vegetables, lay stationary for hours on end.
In Rajshahi, Jamaat-Shibir and BNP activists torched a pharmaceutical company’s microbus and four rice-carrying trucks throwing petrol bombs at Katakhali Dewanpara on the eve of the blockade.
Bangladesh Truck & Covered Van Owners Association fears the entire road transport system will collapse if the current political impasse continues.
In a statement yesterday, it demanded the government compensate the affected owners; otherwise, they won’t be able to return to business.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance called the blockade of roads, rail and waterways for the second time in seven days to press for the cancellation of polls schedule and protest “false cases” against its leaders and “torture and repression” of its activists.
Like in the earlier blockade, violence flared up across the country as opposition men clashed with law enforcers and exploded crude bombs, report our district correspondents.
Two pedestrians in Dhaka and Chittagong, a Shibir activist in Jhenidah and a Jubo Dal man in Pabna were killed, pushing the death toll in the opposition’s back-to-back blockades to 23.
In the capital’s Malibagh, pro-blockade activists hurled a petrol bomb at a bus area around 7:30pm. Losing control, the bus crushed Habibur Rahman, 35, to death and injured a rickshaw-puller. Two passengers also suffered burn injuries in the bomb attack.
The grieving family members of Habibur Rahman, who was crushed to death by a bus that lost control after being hit by a petrol bomb in the capital’s Malibagh last night. Photo: Palash Khan
Another pedestrian was hurt in a blast at Bangshal around 2:00pm.
In Chittagong, a 45-year-old man was killed as a pickup, chased by blockaders, ran him over at Nayakhal on Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway in Satkania upazila around 8:00pm, UNB reported.
The deceased, Nimai Nath, hailed from Patiya upazila of the district.
Our Jhenidah correspondent reports: Shibir activist Israfil Hossain suffered bullet injuries during a clash with police in Kotchandpur bus stand area, locals say. He was rushed to a local health complex where doctors declared him dead.
Five others, including policemen, were also wounded in the incident.
Jamaat secretary Tajul Islam of Kotchandpur upazila claims police fired live rounds without any provocation.
But ASP Jahid Hassan says police shot rubber bullets at Jamaat-Shibir-BNP activists who were throwing petrol bombs and brick chips at them.
Jamaat called a daylong hartal in two upazilas of the district today in protest at the killing.
In Pabna, Mahbubul Islam, 26, was killed and five others were injured when hit by a truck in Ishwardi upazila around 6:00pm. He was identified by locals as an activist of Jubo Dal, a pro-BNP student body, police said.
Biman Kumar Das, officer-in-charge of Ishwardi Police Station, said blockaders hurled brick chips at the Kushtia-bound truck at Mirkumari point on Rajshahi-Kushtia highway. As the vehicle sped up, the driver lost control of it, resulting in the accident.
The activists set fire to the truck.
Road communications between Dhaka and other districts remained suspended yesterday as the opposition men put up barricades on highways and smashed vehicles.
Ferry and launch services were badly disrupted on various routes.
The blockaders put up barricades on Lalmonirhat-Dhaka and three other routes near Mahendranagar station in Lalmonirhat for eight hours till 2:00pm yesterday.
Chittagong’s rail link with Dhaka and Sylhet was snapped for around two and a half hours as several hundred blockaders took position on Dhaka-Chittagong route at Ispahani Gate area yesterday morning.
The rail services on the route resumed around 11:10am as police managed to disperse the activists.
Jalal Ahmed, 50, a locomaster of Chandpur-bound Meghna Express, was injured when blockaders threw stone around 6:15pm while the train was approaching Sitakunda Railway Station.
Incidents of clashes, vandalism and explosion were also reported from Rajshahi, Moulvibazar, Chittagong, Jamalpur, Chandpur and Jessore.
Source: The Daily Star
