Blockade Till 6:00pm Today
At least six more people were killed in fresh violence that rocked several districts across the country yesterday, the second day of the opposition’s nationwide blockade.
It was initially a 48-hour blockade in protest at the announcement of the polls schedule, but the 18-party alliance yesterday extended it by 12 hours for what it called killings of its activists and government oppression. The blockade will now end at 6:00pm today.
Yesterday, a train derailed at Gazipur, after the rails were removed, Photo: Star
Throughout the day yesterday, the railways continued to bear the wrath of blockade supporters, as the BNP-Jamaat men ripped up fishplates and set fire on tracks, snapping rail communications on different routes.
Road communications between Dhaka and other districts also collapsed as the opposition men, like on the first day, put barricades on different highways. Ferry and launch services were also badly disrupted on various routes like on Tuesday.
Pro-blockade activists fought pitched battle with law enforcers and ruling party men and blasted crude bombs and torched buses, cars and other vehicles in different districts, leaving scores injured.
They also blasted several crude bombs inside the district election commission office at Jamalkhan in Chittagong, but nothing was damaged in the incident. Rowdy opposition men also torched ruling party offices in Chittagong, Munshiganj and houses and shops belonging to the ruling party men in Satkhira, report our district correspondents.
In Dhaka, at least nine vehicles were torched and dozens of crude bombs blasted. At least 20 people were injured as the opposition activists clashed with law enforcers, blocking the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Phulbaria in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital.
The rail line, in Pahartoli of Chittagong were torched. Photo: Star
Nine other people were injured in crude bomb attacks near Shahidullah Hall of Dhaka University in the evening.
The opposition men set fire to three private cars at Ashkona in Uttara, a pickup van at Naya Bazar in Old Dhaka and a CNG-run auto-rickshaw in Kalshi of Mirpur.
In Satkhira, Jamaat activist Shamsur Rahman, 40, died when law enforcers opened fire after being attacked by several hundred Jamaat-Shibir men around 2:30am.
Police said they came under attack at Abaderhatkhola area in Sadar upazila when a team of 350 police, Rab and BGB members went to raid Agardari Alia madrasa, a Jamaat hideout.
Inamul Haque, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station, said sensing the law enforcers’ presence, the Jamaat men, using the loudspeaker of a mosque, asked their party men to come out of homes and resist the lawmen.
Within a few minutes, about 3,000 Jamaat and Shibir men gathered at Abaderhatkhola. As the law enforcers marched toward Agordari Alia Madrasa area, the Jamaat-Shibir activists resisted them and hurled crude bombs and brick chips at them, Inamul added.
A signal post, in Kadamtoli of Sylhet were torched. Photo: Star
When the law enforcers were retreating in the face of resistance, the Jamaat-Shibir men put barricades on Kadamtola-Bashdha road with logs.
At one stage, they attacked the law enforcers with sticks and hurled a number of bombs. Police and BGB men then opened fire, leaving the Jamaat man dead on the spot, the police officer said.
An additional force from Satkhira helped the law enforcers get out of the area. After the law enforcers left, the Jamaat-Shibir men vandalised and torched houses and shops belonging to AL supporters. They also looted valuables from their houses, police said.
Meanwhile, a housewife died after a big branch of a tree, being chopped by opposition men, fell on her head. The victim is Ambia Khatun, 28, wife of Harun-ar-Rashid of Gopinathpur of Kolaroa upazila.
Jamaat-Shibir men cut trees at Gopinathpur to enforce the blockade, and a branch fell on Ambia’s head as she was crossing the spot, police said.
In Sirajganj, a union-level leader of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), a pro-BNP student wing, and a Jamaat activist were killed when police opened fire after being attacked near Mukundagati Bazar area in Belkuchi upazila around 1:00pm.
But there were two heroes who saved lives. Tajul Islam and Anwar Hossain, stopped the Meghna Express near Meher station with a red flag early yesterday after opposition activists uprooted rail lines there. Photo: Star
The dead are Masum Billah, 25, organising secretary of Dhukuriabera union unit of JCD; and Abdul Jalil, 55, a Jamaat activist. At least 25 more people were injured, three of them bullet-hit, in the clash that lasted around 30 minutes.
In Gazipur, a pro-AL union parishad member was killed during a clash between AL and BNP men in Kaliganj upazila.
Kamal Uddin, 30, was a member of Jamalpur Union Parishad in the upazila.
The clash erupted when activists of the two archrivals brought out pro and anti-blockade processions around 2:15pm, said Nazmul Islam Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of Kaliganj Police Station.
In Chittagong, a battery-run auto-rickshaw driver was killed in Patia upazila as his vehicle fell into a roadside ditch after being chased by pro-blockade activists. The victim is Ershad Ali, 22.
Meanwhile, Anwara Begum, 42, who was injured in a crude bomb attack at Malibagh in the capital on Tuesday, died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday, taking the death toll to 14 in the last two days’ blockade violence. Two more people died in pre-blockade violence.
Source: The Daily Star
