Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, locked into clashes with police, blasted cocktails and injured at least 10 people including police personnel and pedestrians at Bata Signal of Elephant Road area in the city on Wednesday morning. Witnesses said around 50 Jamaat-Shibir men brought out a procession from an alley near Bata Signal intersection around 9:15am protesting the government decision to bar war crimes convicts from being registered as voters and marched towards Science Laboratory.
“As soon as the on duty police personnel rushed to the scene and intercepted the procession, the unruly protestors instantly engaged in clashes with the law enforcers pelting stones and brickbats,” Ripon Kumar Saha, a sub-inspector of New Market Police Station told The Independent.
Being intercepted by police the unruly activists blasted seven cocktails targeting the law enforcers and vandalised scores of vehicles stranded on the road due to the clash.
The officer-in-charge of New Market Police Station Mohammad Yasin Arafat told The Independent, “A chase and counter-chase ensued when the on-duty police personnel resisted the protestors. Police fired gunshots and teargas canisters to disperse the activists and bring the situation under control.”
Locals and shop keepers of the area said, police fired a few rounds of rubber bullets and lobbed teargas shells into the crowd, leaving at least 10 people injured including a police officer. Police also picked seven people from the scene and one of the staff of Bata Showroom is among the detainees, Murad, a salesman of the showroom, claimed.
On Tuesday, Jamaat announced agitation programme in the capital on Wednesday, protesting against the draft approved by the cabinet.
-With The Independent input
