Opposition’s 72-hour blockade underway for day-2 amid violence

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The blockade started at 6am on Saturday and it will continue until 6am Tuesday.

Dhaka

The second day of the Opposition called 72-hour nationwide blockade was marred with violence in the capital. Blockade campaigners stopped a bus by exploding handmade bombs at the capital’s Nayabazaar and then set it on fire around 9am.

Police’s Additional Deputy Commissioner (Lalbagh) Abdus Salam said that the Gabtoli-bound bus was attacked at Malitola area.

Babul,22, the driver of the bus told that a few young men exploded eight to ten handmade bombs , forcing him to stop the vehicle. He was beaten up by the blockade supporters, who then set the bus on fire.

Fire service put out the fire.

More bombs exploded in the area, said ADC Salam.

Activists of BNP’s youth affiliate Juba Dal clashed with police at the city’s Mirpur locality.

Witnesses said the clash erupted around 7am at the kitchen market area of Mirpur-11 when police stopped a procession of the blockade campaigners. A few handmade bombs went off.

Police dispersed the opposition supporters by firing in the air.

Pallabi Police Station OC Zia-Uz-Zaman said three handmade bombs have been recovered from the spot.

Long-haul bus services were suspended on Saturday from Dhaka’s Sayedabad, Mohakhali and Gabtoli inter-district terminals. However, some short-distance buses left from Babubazaar and Postogola, said Police’s Assistant Commissioner (Demra) Minhajul Islam.

Tight security in the Dhaka streets on Sunday failed to assure transport operators who fear attacks by Opposition activists. Office-goers were suffering due to a paucity of public transport. But four-wheelers, auto-rickshaws and rickshaws were on the roads.

Launch services from Dhaka were also much less in the morning, because passengers were fewer. BIWTC Traffic Inspector Md Solaiman said that around 28 water transports, mostly from the Southern districts, remained anchored in Dhaka in the morning. Only 3 launches left the capital since 9am, he said.

Besides, activists of Chhatra Shibir, student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, blasted 13 cocktails and locked into clashes with law enforcers in city’s Khilgaon and Khilkhet areas between 7:50 am and 8:00am Sunday.
1st day’s blockade violence.

Narayanganj

At least five people were injured when the blockaders set fire to a passenger bus after spreading gun powder at IET school intersection of Hajiganj in the city on Sunday morning.

Sources said the activists of district unit Chhatra Dal led by its Convener Monirul Islam Sajol and Joint-Convener Shahed barricaded the Narayanganj-Adamji-Demra highway.

They also vandalised several vehicles and a police box and set ablaze it.

Besides, the Shibir activists set fire to a passenger bus of Adamji EPZ after spreading gun powder on it at Sidhirganj in the city, leaving 5 garments workers injured. The blockaders brought out rallies, exploded crude bombs and set fire in different areas in the city on the 2nd day of the 72–hour rail-road-waterway blockade.

Additional law enforcers were deployed in different areas in the city to avert untoward situation.

Blockaders torched three pick-up van at Jatra Intersection in Rupganj upazila of Narayanganj around 3:30am. The vehicles were parked in the area, fire service sources said.

Gazipur

In Gazipur, 15 crude bombs were blasted at bus stand area in the city and blockade supporters brought out processions in different areas of the city.

Rajshahi

At least 12 people were injured when five bogies of a passenger train derailed as the blockaders removed the fishplates of the rail tracks in Sholua area near Sharda rail station in Charghat upazila early Sunday.

Kishoreganj

Pro-blockade activists torched a truck at Bajitpur of Kishoreganj around 4:15am.

Background

Six people died in blockade related incidents in different parts of the country on Saturday, the first day of the Opposition called 72-hour. Six people including an activist of Chhatra Shibir, an activist of Jubo Dal and three pedestrians were killed in separate violence in Dhaka, Jhenidah, Pabna, Chittagong and Bogra on Saturday, the first day of 72-hour blockade.

Over 150 crude bombs were blasted while some 100 vehicles either vandalised or torched and over 60 people were arrested by the law enforcers during the first day of the blockade.

On Friday night, BNP spokesperson Rizvi announced the fresh spell of the 72-hour blockade programme at a press briefing at the BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.

The blockade is also meant for protesting denial of permission to it to hold a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on Saturday afternoon and the continued repression and oppression on opposition leaders and activists

Earlier, the opposition combine had enforced a 71-hour road-rail-waterway blockade from 6am Tuesday to 5am Friday protesting the announcement of the schedule for the 10th parliamentary polls.

Source: Banglanews, Bdnews, Daily Star, UNB, Dhaka Tribune

1 COMMENT

  1. ‘Attack on democracy’:
    Bar Council Vice-Chairman and BNP leader Khandker Mahbub Hossain has said that the police raid at BNP headquarters is an assault on democracy.
    http://www.bd1news.com/2013/11/30/247782.htm.
    “What we have witnessed here today (Saturday) in the name of democracy does not happen even in a barbaric society,” he told reporters after visiting the party’s headquarters at Naya Paltan on Saturday.The BNP chairperson’s advisor went to Naya Paltan leading a delegation of professionals.Police prevented the delegation from entering the office when it reached there around 1pm. The leaders and journalists were let in only after heated exchanges between the police and the delegation.BNP office staff apprised Hossain of the whole incident. He was told that police had broken the door to enter the office and ransacked several rooms on the first and second floors.
    “We are ashamed to see what has happened here. We didn’t see anything like this even in 1971,” said the BNP leader.He blamed the government’s ‘special group’ for the arson and vandalism during the Opposition- backed blockade.“The ongoing crisis can only be solved if the Prime Minister resigns. I ask the Prime Minister to step down and then initiate for polls.”Meanwhile, Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque has also condemned the arrest of Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and ransacking of the party office.“The movement for a non-party government cannot be crushed by such arrests and oppression. I ask the government, there’s still time– stop these oppressive measures and hold the polls under a non-party government. Or else the matter will be resolved on the streets,” reads a statement issued by the BNP leader.——

    EXCEPTING BEGUM KHALEDA MOST OF THE BNP, JAMAAT & OTHER PARTY LEADERS HAVE BEEN PUT INTO JAIL, REST ARE HIDING TO AVOID ARREST, TORTURE AND JAIL. THERE IS NONE LEFT EXCEPT BEGUM KHALEDA TO CONTINUE A “DIALOGUE” WITH HASINA AS ORDERED BY HASINA. MORE THAN 2,176 CRIMINAL CASES HAVE BEEN FILED AGAINST THE OPPOSITION LEADERS. AGAINST 37 TOP LEADERS MORE THAN 14 CHARGES HAVE BEEN MADE AGAINST EACH OF THEM SO THAT THEY CANNOT CONTEST THE ELECTION COMING OUT OF JAIL BEFORE THE ELECTION IS OVER AND HASINA IS AGAIN ENTHRONED AS THE “ELECTED” PRIME MINISTER. INFORMATION MINISTER SAID, “ IF THEY AGREE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ELECTION UNDER HASINA AS P.M. THEY WOULD ALL BE FREED EXCEPT THE JAMAATIS” — Monju Munshi, from Dhaka:
    Police at Salahuddin Cox’s Bazaar house:
    Police turned up at the house of BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed at Pekua Upazila in Cox’s Bazaar, hours after he took the charge as party spokesperson.Ahmed’s nephew Safuanul Karim informed that the police came to the house around 11 am on Saturday.“A couple of members of the Pekua police station barged into the house. They strolled around the premises and then left,” he said.Ahmed’s wife Hasina is the local MP.Pekua Police Station OC Habibur Rahman said they went to Ahmed’s house following orders from ” higher-ups”. http://www.bd1news.com/2013/11/30—-

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