Eight vehicles were burnt in pre-strike violence in the afternoon and at night in the capital on Tuesday while the police foiled processions and arrested people drumming up support for the 48-hour general strike the BNP and its allies are enforcing from today.
The police arrested supporters of the strike and a mobile court jailed for a year a supporter of strike on charges of burning a bus at Bangshal in Dhaka. Seven others were jailed for a month by mobile courts at Motijheel and Paltan.
At least six buses and two cars were burnt in the
capital. A covered van also went up in flames at Kakrail which the police said was burnt by the protesters while others said that the van had caught fire because of a technical fault.
At least seven crude bombs were also exploded in the capital — in front of the BNP’s central office at Naya Paltan, on the Dhaka University campus, in the Science Laboratory crossing, near the Supreme Court crossing and at Gulshan.
The authorities said a mobile court had jailed Motaleb, 24, for a year on the eve of the strike on charges of burning a bus at Chankharpool. Mobile courts also jailed seven others for a month at Motijheel and Paltan.
A bus was burnt near the Rajarbagh Police
Lines about 9:25pm. Two cars were burnt at Mohakhali about 8:30pm and about 9:30pm, fire fighters said.
Four buses were burnt fire at Maniknagar about 3:15pm, at Kazipara about 5:00pm, at Rampura about 6:30pm and at Chankharpool at 7:00pm. Another bus that was parked was burnt near the AGB Colony at Motijheel about 1:45pm.
The police arrested Motaleb in connection with the burning of the bus at Chankharpool. A mobile court jailed him for a year.
The Sutrapur police arrested three people in possession of five crude bombs and a dagger.
The police said that the covered van, at Kakrail, was burnt by the supporters of the strike about 1:45pm while the fire fighters said that the vehicle had caught fire from its battery because of a technical fault. Nobody was, however, reported injured in the fire, fire fighters said.
While the police suspect that the vehicles had been burnt by the supporters of the strike, the BNP brushed aside the allegations.
The BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged the government had employed its goods to burn the vehicles.
Law enforcers arrested about 100 supporters of the strike in the capital. The police foiled an attempt of BNP leaders to distribute leaflet in the city.
The BNP’s allies Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party (Naziur) and like-minded Jatiya Ganatantrik Party also brought out processions.
The police foiled BNP rallies at places across the country. At least 50 people were wounded in clashes between police and supporters of the strike at places across the country. Twenty of them were injured in Chittagong and 10 in Rajshahi. At least 10 buses were vandalised in Chittagong.
The BNP, however, alleged that more than 200 activists had been arrested and 250 had been wounded in attacks carried out by ‘the police and goons hired by the ruling party.’
The BNP and its allies are enforcing the strike in protest at the scrapping of the caretaker government provision from the constitution and in demand for some other issues.
Twelve Islamist parties have, meanwhile, called general strike for 30 hours beginning Sunday morning.
-With New Age input
