The opposition’s 84-hour marathon hartal ended at 6 pm Wednesday amid sporadic street clashes, arson attacks, vandalism and crude bomb blasts across the country, leaving two people dead and over 400 injured.
Nirmal Das, 42, son of Pranhari Das of Madhyam Madarsah area and an employee of University of Science and Technology (USTC), was killed when an auto-rickshaw overturned amid a chase by hartal pickets at Katakhali in Hathazari upazila of Chittagong on the first day of the hartal on Sunday.
In Pabna, Asadul Islam, 28, a Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal activist and son of late Azizul Haque of Muladuli Bazar area, drowned in a ditch as he jumped into it reportedly after being chased by police while picketing in Iswardi upazila on Tuesday on the third day of the hartal on Tuesday.
In the capital, at least eight people suffered serious burn injuries as unidentified miscreants set a bus alight in the city’s Matuail area around 2:15 pm on Tuesday.
The non-stop shutdown was enforced to press the current regime for arranging the next general election under a non-party administration.
According reports reaching the UNB news desk, at least 250 vehicles were damaged, 380 crude bombs blasted and over 400 opposition activists arrested across the country during the 84-hour hartal.
In Dhaka city on Wednesday, pro-hartal activists brought out sporadic processions in support of the shutdown at different points of the city and locked into clashes with the law enforcers.
Incidents of chase and counter-chase between police and hartal supporters were reported from different parts of the city, including Jatrabari, Mouchak, Uttar Badda, Panthapath, Madartek, Mirpur and Moghbazar.
Educational institutions and most shopping malls were closed, but government and non-government offices in the capital ran as usual.
Motorised vehicles plied the city streets in larger numbers unlike the three previous shutdowns.
Violent incidents like vandalising and torching vehicles, clashes between hartal pickets and police and ruling party activists, arrest of opposition leaders and activists and crude bomb blasts were also reported from a number of districts, including Lalmonirhat, Comilla, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Laxmipur and Bogra.
In Lalmonirhat, at least 18 people were injured in a train derailment as pickets uprooted a rail track in Tusvandar area of Kaliganj upazila early Wednesday.
Following the accident, all types of train movement between the district town and the land port remained suspended till filing of the report at about 6:30 pm.
All types of vehicles engaged in providing medical services, ambulances, media vehicles and medicine and food shops were out of the hartal purview.
The shutdown programme was originally set for 72 hours from 6:00am on Sunday to 6:00am on Wednesday, but it was later extended by 12 hours to 6:00pm on Wednesday in protest against the arrest of senior BNP leaders.
Earlier, the opposition alliance enforced two spells of 60-hour countrywide shutdown — October 27-29 and November 4-6 — to press for the same demand, which left 20 people killed and over 8,000 people injured across the country.
Source: UNB Connect
