Khadimul Islam and Iqbal Mahmud
Stricken by arson attacks, the capital’s streets as well as the highways are getting more and more deserted after sunset.
Blasts at nights puncture the capital’s deceptive day time calm.
Reports of arson attacks cause panic.
The streets remain virtually deserted at night, said commuters and transport workers scared of arson attacks.
Crude bombs were thrown at houses of ministers and judges in posh areas mostly after sunset.
On the night of January 13 BNP chairperson’s advisor Reaz Rahman was seriously injured being shot at shortly after he had left her office at Glushan where the former prime minister was detained for weeks.
Virtually no arson attacks took place during the daytime since the nationwide non-stop blockade began on January 5, called by Khaleda demanding parliamentary elections with the participation of all the political parties.
But after sunset the picture changes with the attacks taking place even targeting police vehicles.
And the nation seems to have no plans to heal the political fractures caused by the controversial parliamentary election of January5, 2014.
In last 19 days, at least 36 lives were lost lives due to political violence across the country, 20 of them common people.
And 12 of them died of severe burns they had suffered due to bombs thrown on transports, 10 of the travelers became victims of attacks at night.
At least 28 commuters suffered burns in the worst arson attack on a bus that took place in the city Friday night at Jatrabari.
Six passengers had died in the early hours of January 14 when the bus carrying them caught fire after a petrol bomb was thrown at it when it had stopped at Mithapukur, Rangpur to pick up more passengers. The bus was on its way Dhaka from Kurigram.
Kabi Nazrul College student Sanjid Islam Ovi, 19, died Thursday of burns he suffered in bomb explosion that took place at Bangabazaar on the night of January 14.
‘I leave for office each morning and try my best to return home at Mirpur before sunset or even earlier,’ banker Altaf Hossain told New Age.
The city’s bus owners and workers said that fear of violence and passenger shortage were compelling them not to run their vehicles after sunset.
‘Who would take the risk of losing a bus in arson attacks,’ said Minhajul Abedin whose bus runs on Gabtoli-Mohijheet route in the city.
‘I am keen to secure my investment,’ he said.
No owner allows his auto-rickshaw to be taken out on the streets at night, Dhaka District Auto-Rickshaw, Auto-Tempo, Mishuk Workers’ Union general secretary Md Golam Faruque told New Age.
Housewife Shohana Begum, who resides at Mirpur, said that her kids panicked on hearing the news of Friday night’s serial blasts.
Nearly 200 vehicles were torched and 300 others damaged during the fortnight ending Wednesday, said road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader.
At least six vehicles were torched Thursday after sunset.
‘We have no option but to return home before sunset for safety,’ said government official Anwar Sadat, a resident of Moghbazar area.
Around 65 commuters suffered burn injuries after pickets set at least 50 busses on fire in the city.
Asked what measures were taken to ensure public safety, inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Hoque recently said that the clandestine attacks were difficult to prevent as they occurred suddenly.
He, however, said that the police and the other law enforcement agencies were alert and on the look out to devise a mechanism to face any clandestine attack.
Source: New Age
