Over 100 people were injured in violence unleashed by the Jamaat-Shibir activists across the country during their daylong hartal on Wednesday. Soon after announcement of the death sentence against war crimes convict and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, protesters blocked several highways by felling roadside tress and vandalising vehicles.
The picketers blockaded Meherpur-Mujibnagar and Meherpur-Chuadanga roads from the morning. Police fired rubber bullets to disperse the agitators.
Jamaat-Shibir activists also tried to block the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Feni and the Dhaka-Syhet highway in Moulavi Bazat. They also torched and vandalised about 100 vehicles in a bid to enforce their strike. Police detained around 50 Jamaat-Shibir activists during the hartal.
The protesters also clashed with police and Awami League activists in different places, leaving many people injured.
Jamaat had enforced the hartal in protest against the government’s alleged conspiracy to kill the outfit’s leaders in the name of a “farcical trial of war criminals”. It has also called another hartal on Thursday, the fourth in a row, tp protest the ICT-2’s verdict against Mujahid.
Jamaat acting secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan had announced the shutdown in a statement.
Jamaat had also enforced daylong hartals in the country on Monday and Tuesday. At least eight people were killed in violence on those two days.
In Dhaka, three cocktails were exploded at Kallyanpur around 6.45am. Police have detained a picketer in this connection. Police also detained four persons for indulging in violence at Jatrabari.
Around 7.10am, protesters vandalised several vehicles and set fire to a bus at Pallabi. No casualty was reported in the incident.
Jamaat-Shibir activists tried to block a road at Dayaganj by burning tyres in the morning. They were chased away by police.
Pro-hartal activists brought out processions and took part in picketing in Kajla, Ranimohal, Dania, Sayedabad, Mirpur section 11, MIrpur section 2, Dhaka Commerce College Road, Shamoly Bus Stand, Dhanmondi, Shukrabad, Bangla College, Khilgaon, Sabujbagh, Chakbazar and Bakhsibazar.
Most educational institutions, shopping malls and shops on major roads remained closed. Government and private offices were open, but attendance was thin. Banks conducted business but their front doors were shut.
Movement of vehicles was less than usual days and no long-route bus left Dhaka during the hartal. Ticket counters at Mohakhali, Sayadabad and Gabtoli bus terminals were closed. However, movement of rickshaws and auto-rickshaws was usual.
The government deployed additional police forces to maintain law and order.
Reports of stray incidents of violence were also reported from other cities and districts, including Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet, Comilla, Gazipur and Cox’s Bazar.
In Chittagong, the number of vehicles on the roads was reasonably low in the morning. However, the situation turned normal in the afternoon with a large number of auto-rickshaws, rickshaws, mini-buses, human haulers and private vehicles coming out in defiance of the hartal.
Though no inter-district bus left Chittagong till afternoon, all trains departed on time. All shops and shopping malls opened by afternoon, well ahead of the end of the hartal.
Jamaat-Shibir activists torched two trucks, a covered van and three auto rickshaws at Fakirhaat and Sitakunda municipal area, locals said. They also damaged over 50 vehicles. Locals also claimed that there were incidents of firing during several clashes between protesters and police at Sitakunda.
OC of Sitakunda Police Station Samiul Alam admitted to the clashes, but not the firing.
In Rajsahi, hartal supporters indulged in widespread vandalism and rampage.
Jamaat-Shibir activists torched at least five vehicles, damaged nearly a dozen auto-rickshawas and attacked law enforcers with cocktails and brick-bats. They also blocked roads by burning tyres in several areas of the city.
In Khulna, the hartal was lukewarm in comparison to other parts of the country. The situation was by and large peaceful in Barisal, except for stray incidents of violence.
Witnesses said Jamat-Shibir activists vandalised an auto-rickshaw and another vehicle in Barisal. The Shibir’s Barisal district north unit claimed that they had held demonstrations at Mahilara and Jayasrri and blocked the Barisal-Dhaka highway in the morning to enforce the hartal. They also damaged seven vehicles. Shibir activists also exploded bombs in the BM College area and staged a demonstration. Police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.
-Wwith The Independent input
