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Railway the main target
 [Bangla Daily Star] At least seven more people were killed and scores injured in fresh violence that rocked several districts across the country yesterday, the second day of the opposition's nationwide rail, roads and waterways blockade.Initially, it was a 48-hour blockade in protest at the announcement of the polls schedule. But the BNP-led 18-party alliance yesterday extended it by 23 hours in two phases -- first by 12 hours in the afternoon and then by 11 hours late at night -- protesting the "killing of its activists and government oppression". The blockade will now end at 5:00am tomorrow, but BNP sources said they may enforce a nonstop blockade from Saturday or Sunday to force the government to meet its demand for a nonparty polls-time government. Like on the previous day, the railways continued to be a main target of the blockaders yesterday, as the BNP-Jamaat men ripped up fishplates and set fire to tracks, snapping rail communications on different routes for hours. Train service on Lalmonirhat-Dhaka and other routes was suspended for eight hours after BNP men removed two fishplates at Mohendranagar in Lalmonirhat around 8:00am. Shibir men uprooted a rail track at Uri-Madhabpur village in Joypurhat early yesterday, halting rail communications with Joypurhat and other districts for several hours till 10:30am. Many intercity trains got stranded at Joypurhat, Parbatipur and Santahar. A locomotive and five compartments of a passenger train named "Agnibina Express" derailed at Bankharia in Sripur of Gazipur around 10:00pm on Tuesday, after blockaders removed fishplates there. Such attacks on the rail system by the opposition men since February cost the railway about Tk 30 crore, Railway Minister Mujibul Haque said yesterday. Road communications between Dhaka and other districts also collapsed as the opposition men continued putting up barricades on different highways yesterday. Ferry and launch services were also badly disrupted on various routes like on Tuesday. Pro-blockade activists fought pitched battle with law enforcers and ruling party men and blasted crude bombs and torched buses, cars and other vehicles in different districts, leaving scores injured. They also blasted several crude bombs inside the district election commission office at Jamalkhan in Chittagong. The extent of damage in the incident could not be immediately known. Rowdy opposition men also torched ruling party offices in Chittagong, Munshiganj and houses and shops belonging to the ruling Awami League men in Satkhira, report our district correspondents. In Dhaka, at least nine vehicles were torched and dozens of crude bombs blasted. At least 20 people were maimed as the opposition activists clashed with law enforcers, blocking the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Phulbaria in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital. Nine other people were maimed in crude kabooms near Shahidullah Hall of Dhaka University in the evening. The opposition men set fire to three private cars at Ashkona in Uttara, a pickup van at Naya Bazar in Old Dhaka and a CNG-run auto-rickshaw in Kalshi of Mirpur. Posted by: Fred 2013-11-28 |
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