Brutality marks Jamaat’s second day of hartal
Star Report
Bus driver Nazrul Islam, with his wife weeping at his bedside. They suffered severe injuries in attacks by alleged Jamaat-Shibir pickets during the 48-hour hartal that ended 6:00am today. He suffered severe injuries in attacks by alleged Jamaat-Shibir pickets during the 48-hour hartal that ended 6:00am today. Photo: Palash Khan
An auto-rickshaw passenger and a Jamaat man were killed in sporadic violence yesterday, the second day of Jamaat-e-Islami’s 48-hour shutdown that ends at 6:00am today.
Three transport workers also suffered severe burns, as they came under attack from pro-hartal pickets in Gazipur, Bogra and Comilla.
Jamaat-Shibir men attacked a CNG-run auto-rickshaw at Chondidasgati in Sirajganj, leaving one of the passengers dead and another seriously injured in the afternoon.
In Meherpur, a Jamaat activist was killed and at least 45 people were injured, as Jamaat men clashed with law enforcers at Gourinagar in Meherpur in the morning.
The three seriously injured transport workers are now fighting for their lives at the Burn Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Lying on a hospital bed, bus driver Nazrul Islam Bhuiyan, 35, told The Daily Star that though he repeatedly begged for mercy from the Jamaat-Shibir men, saying he is the lone breadwinner of his four-member family.
“I begged them not to set fire to the bus. But nothing could pacify the pickets, who got into the bus in the guise of passengers. They poured flammable objects on me and set me on fire with a match stick when the bus reached Bogra bypass area in Gazipur around 8:15am,” he said.
Truck driver Shamsul Alam at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. They suffered severe injuries in attacks by alleged Jamaat-Shibir pickets during the 48-hour hartal that ended 6:00am today. He suffered severe injuries in attacks by alleged Jamaat-Shibir pickets during the 48-hour hartal that ended 6:00am today. They suffered severe injuries in attacks by alleged Jamaat-Shibir pickets during the 48-hour hartal that ended 6:00am today. Photo: Palash Khan
He then desperately tried to come out of the bus but the pro-hartal pickets prevented him, shouting, “How dare you drive a bus during the Jamaat’s hartal,” said Nazrul, who had suffered burns to 60 percent of his body.
“At one stage, I managed to jump into a roadside water body and douse the flame,” he said.
Another victim, Shamsul Islam, 55, a truck driver, was in a very critical condition as he suffered burns to 95 percent of his body.
“A group of 15-20 pro-hartal pickets stopped the truck in Sherpur area in Bogra while it was on its way to Sirajganj from Panchagarh carrying 700 bags of fertiliser. They suddenly threw a petrol bomb at the truck,” said Shamsul’s wife Sabina Yasmin, quoting the truck’s helper Md Shahin.
Talking to The Daily Star over the phone, Shahin said, “The pickets stopped our truck around 10:00pm on Wednesday. The driver begged them for mercy. But they ignored his appeal and started vandalising the truck. At one stage, they threw a petrol bomb targeting us.”
Shahin is receiving treatment at the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College in Bogra.
Jamaat-Shibir men also set fire to a truck at Chouddagram in Comilla around 9:30pm on Wednesday, leaving its driver Sekandar Bepari, 42, critically wounded.
The truck was carrying electrical goods to Chittagong from Dhaka.
“Fifty-two percent of his body, including the face and chest, had been burnt,” said a doctor at the DMCH.
Truck driver Sekandar at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. He suffered severe injuries in attacks by alleged Jamaat-Shibir pickets during the 48-hour hartal that ended 6:00am today. Photo: Palash Khan
Source: The Daily Star
