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Jubo League man killed; 4 BNP women MPs held for 9hrs
[Bangla Daily Star] BNP politician Shammi Akhter and constable Sharifa Akhter lie on the street as BNP MP Asfia Ashrafi Papia rushes to her colleague's aid at Nayapaltan yesterday. During a scuffle inside the minivan in which they were being picked up by police, Shammi fell off the rolling vehicle and took the policewoman with her. The two, along with two other female BNP politicians, were tossed in the slammer
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
 for nearly 9 hours by police. Photo: Star

Sporadic incidents of vandalism, arson, kabooms and festivities between activists of the BNP-led alliance and law enforcers marked yesterday's dawn-to-dusk shutdown by the 18-party combine.

Pro-hartal activists also clashed with ruling party men in three districts, leaving a Jubo League
... the youth wing of the Bangla Awami League...
 activist dead in Chapainawabganj.

The BNP-led alliance enforced the hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
 to protest "the attacks on a BNP rally on Wednesday by police and armed ruling party men."

In Dhaka, police picked up four female BNP politicians -- Ashfia Ashrafi Papia, Shammi Akhter, Rasheda Begum Hira and Rehena Akhter Ranu -- in front of BNP's Nayapaltan office around 10:30am. The politicians were released around 7:30pm.

Pro-hartal pickets vandalised and torched vehicles, went kaboom! cocktails, and put barricades on roads in at least 12 districts during the shutdown. They also set fire to railway tracks in Comilla.

In the capital, they attacked and torched vehicles at Motijheel, near parliament, Shanir Akhra, Gopibagh and in front of Dhaka College.

In the early hours of the hartal, three journalists were maimed as they were caught in a clash between hartal supporters and anti-hartal activists at Basabo.

The injured were among other journalists present there to cover hartal, said police constable Ishak. He, however, could not give any details about the injured newsmen.

In Chapainawabganj, pro-hartal activists fought with ruling party men, leaving 26-year-old Abdur Rahman, a Jubo League activist, dead and 10 others injured at Poladanga in Bholahat upazila.

The pro-hartal pickets also set alight a fire service vehicle at Mushribhuza in the upazila.

Police and witnesses said BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
 activists brought out a procession from Mushribhuza village around 10:30am in support of the hartal. When they reached Poladanga bazar, they attacked shops, and set fire to a warehouse and two cycle of violences.


Posted by: Fred 2013-03-08
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=363752