One person was killed, around 350 people including law enforcers were injured while over 300 opposition activists were arrested across the country during the 84-hour hartal enforced by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led 18-party alliance to realise their demand for holding the next general election under the caretaker government. During the hartal hours, more than 200 vehicles were damaged, 300 cocktails were blasted in different areas of the country.
On Tuesday, Asadul Islam (28), a Juba Dal activist and son of Azizul Islam of Adarsha Gram in Pabna, was killed when he fell into a pond at Muladuli Road around 8am after the police chased him during the picketing in a nearby area.
Earlier, the opposition parties observed two spells of 60-hour countrywide hartal from October 27-29 and from November 4-6, which left 20 people killed and over 8,000 people injured across the country.
However, police released the three female BNP MPs Nilufar Chowdhury Mony, Shammi Akhter and Rasheda Begum Hira half an hour after their detention in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan office in the city yesterday. Police detained them
while they were trying to enter the party office around 2:00 pm.
Police arrested five people and recovered eight crude bombs from Mirpur and Jatrabari areas during the ongoing 84-hour hartal.
In Jatrabari, police arrested three people while they were moving suspiciously and recovered six unexploded bombs from Jatrabari area at about 10:00am.
In Rangpur, at least 25 people including five police personnel were injured in a clash between BNP activists and police in front of BNP office at Grand Hotel Square in the city on Wednesday noon.
District and city Awami League brought out an anti-hartal procession from their office. When the procession reached Rangpur Press Club, the activists chanted anti-hartal slogans.
In the mean time leaders and activists of BNP, Juba Dal and Chattra Dal came out of their office and moved towards Press Club to chase the procession of Awami League.
In Rajshahi, pickets set ablaze to two vehicles, a truck and a human hauler called Nasimon in Katakhali of Sadar upazila at about 6:45am.
Earlier, activists of BNP-Jamaat brought out a procession in support of hartal in the areas around 7:30am.
In Comilla, at least 10 people, including four policemen, were injured in a clash between police and hartal activists at Kalakachua in Burichang upazila on the last day of hartal. Witnesses said a group of hartal supporters tried to put up barricade on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway at about 10:30am.
In Sylhet, the hartal was observed peacefully on Wednesday. No untoward incident was happened in the city during the last day of nationwide strike.
In the morning 9am Jamaat Shibir activists brought out a procession from the city’s Ambarkhana area and ended up after it reached Sylhet Central Shaheed Minar.
At 9.20am BNP Sylhet district and city units jointly brought out a procession toward Zindabazaar to Chouhatta Point in the city supporting the strike. City BNP President MA Haque, General Secretary Abdul Qaium Jalali Panki, District Organizing Secretary Ali Ahmed took part in the procession.
In Gazipur, a truck driver and his two assistants sustained burn injuries when pickets hurled a petrol bomb on the vehicle on Ghorashal Bypass in Murgaon area of Kaliganj upazila around 10:30pm on Tuesday night.
Locals dragged out the trio from the truck after dousing the blaze.
Injured driver Babul Bepari, 38, and his two helpers Saidul Hajra, 35, and Israfil, 30, were admitted to Kaliganj Upazila Health Complex, the OC said adding that they were now out of danger.
-With The Independent input
