Countrywide blockade: Violence, arson attack, clashes marks 1st day of 48-hr blockade

The first day of the the BNP and like-minded opposition parties‍‍` 48-hour nationwide blockade, has been marked by stray incidents of violence, including clashes with police and torching vehicles on Sunday.

The blockade that started at 6am on Sunday will end at 6 am on Tuesday.

Pickets were seen torching vehicles in different parts of the country including the capital on the first day of the 48-hour blockade.

A bus of Shikor Paribahan and another bus of Airport - Bangabandhu Avenue route were torched on Sunday evening at Mirpur 11.5 (Sare Egaro) and Banglamotor areas respectively. 

A BRTC double-decker bus was set on fire by unidentified miscreants in Dhaka’s Mirpur area at 3:45pm in front of Govt. Bangla College in Mirpur, said Rozina Akter, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters.

Meanwhile, a passenger suffered burn injuries after miscreants set a bus on fire at Meradia area of Dhaka’s Khilgaon.

The injured was identified as Md Sabuj, 30, a resident of Merul Badda.

He was admitted to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery with critical burn injuries.

Besides, police arrested a Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) activist after two crude bombs were thrown at a police vehicle at the House Building area of the capital’s Uttara on Sunday morning.

The arrestee was identified as GM Hasan, former vice president of Gazipur city unit BNP.

Besides, three more leaders of BNP including Barrister Shahjahan Omar, Altaf and Saleh Prince were arrested from different parts of the capital on Saturday night and Sunday.

Earlier, on Saturday, miscreants set four buses on fire in Dhaka’s New Market, Elephant Road, Sayedabad, and Gulistan areas which created panic among people ahead of the 48-hour blockade.

Another bus of Anabil Paribahan was burnt by miscreants in the Signboard area of Narayanganj on Saturday midnight.

In Bogura, six people including a BNP leader, sustained bullet injuries in a clash between police and blockade supporters on Dhaka-Bogura highway at Telipukur in the district.

Witnesses said the pickets vandalised five trucks and a covered van in the area during the blockade.

Later, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells, triggering a chase and counter chase.

Saihan Oliullah, officer-in-charge of Bogura Sadar Police Station, said police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the blockade supporters.

In Chattogram, a passenger bus was set on fire by pickets in the Katghar area of Patenga during a dawn-to-dusk hartal called by BNP‍‍`s local unit, amid the countrywide 48-hour blockade enforced by BNP, Jamaat and likeminded opposition parties to realise their one-point demand.on Sunday.

Chittagong city, north and south district BNP called for the hartal to protest the arrest of BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury from Gulshan in Dhaka.

In Khagrachhari, miscreants set a truck on fire at Alutila in Khagrachhari district town on Sunday morning.

Pausing their protest for two days, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Thursday announced that his party would enforce a 48-hour countrywide blockade beginning from Sunday morning.

Vehicles of newspapers or media, ambulances, and vehicles transporting oxygen cylinders and medicines will remain out of the purview of the blockade.

Twenty-seven platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been deployed in Dhaka and adjoining districts to maintain law and order situation during the 48-hour countrywide blockade called by the BNP and like-minded opposition parties, including Jamaat e Islami.

Shariful Islam, public relations officer (PRO) at BGB headquarters, confirmed the development this morning, saying that 10 more platoons of the paramilitary forces have been kept on standby to face any situation.

Like the first spell of the blockade, the members of the frontier battalion have been performing their duties alongside police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Ansar to ensure public safety and security in Dhaka and other parts of the country.

Earlier the opposition parties observed a day-long hartal on October 29 and a three-day blockade from October 31 to November 2.

Police arrested several BNP leaders and activists, including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, and standing committee members Mirza Abbas and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, following the violence centring the party’s grand rally at Nayapaltan on October 28, that left two people, including a police constable, dead.