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| Bangladesh |
| Dozens hurt in clashes |
| 2011-02-08 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] At least 83 persons were maimed in sporadic festivities between police and pro-hartal activists across the country during a dawn-to-dusk hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... yesterday. The main opposition BNP enforced the nation wide hartal though most of its senior level leaders and major allies including Jamaat-e-Islami did not take to the street. Law enforcers cordoned off the BNP central office at Naya Paltan since morning. About 15 BNP activists were maimed when police charged truncheons on them at the entrance and ground floor of the office after pickets set a Mishuk (three-wheeler auto-rickshaw) afire around 12:40pm. Police used water cannon to disperse the BNP men and picked up eight from the spot. Cops also obstructed activists while they tried to bring out processions around 9:30am and 11:30am and jugged two. Awami League activists allegedly attacked the Dhandmondi house of BNP's Dhaka district unit President and chairperson's Adviser Abdul Mannan. Stray incidents marked the hartal in several districts including Rajshahi, Barisal, Khulna and Narsingdi, report our correspondents. At least 35 people were maimed in Rajshahi, nine in Khulna and 20 in Joypurhat during festivities between police and picketers. BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain at a press briefing at the party's central office yesterday afternoon declared two-day programme protesting attack and arrest during hartal hours. He claimed law enforcers jugged at least 500 and injured 800 party activists. The party will stage demonstration at city's Muktangon today and across the country tomorrow. BNP leaders Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Rizvi Ahmed and politicians Zainul Abdin Farroque, Rehana Akhter Ranu, Nilufar Chowdhury Moni, Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papia and Shammi Akhter, among others, were present in front of the party office. AL, however, said BNP had called the hartal and resorted to violence to hamper preparations for the forthcoming World Cup Cricket and to tarnish the image of the country. "Next time government won't tolerate such activities in the name of hartal and check those strictly," said AL Joint Secretary General Mahbubul Alam Hanif adding, since there was no logic for enforcing hartal, there was no spontaneity in observing it. Most of the shops, schools and business establishments remained closed in the capital. Rickshaws and some passenger buses were found plying on city streets while rail and air communication were normal. Trial proceedings at Dhaka District and Metropolitan Session Judge's courts continued as usual, noted our court correspondent. Chittagong Port operated normally but the delivery of cargos was hampered, said port authority Secretary Farhad Uddin Ahmed. BNP leader Abdul Mannan, his wife and two others were maimed when some unruly youths, riding on at least 25 cycle of violences, attacked his residence around 10:00am, Nasiruddin Ahmed Ashim, son-in-law of Mannan, told The Daily Star. Some of them entered the house premises and vandalised a microbus parked there when Mannan, with his fellow leader Emran Saleh Prince, was taking preparations to bring out a procession. The four received minor injuries as the youths threw brick chips from outside the house and broke the window glasses. Police rushed to the spot but did not restrict the youths, complained Nasiruddin adding, they were chanting 'Joy Bangla' slogan. Police dispersed a number of gatherings at Mohakhali, Shantinagar and Science Laboratory intersections, court premises of Old Dhaka and several other places in the capital. Pickets set a bus ablaze at Suritola around 1:50pm, which was doused by two units of Gulistan Fire Brigade Station. BNP leader Mirza Abbas led a procession in Shantinagar area around 10:15am before police used batons to disperse them. Incensed, activists vandalised a CNG-run auto-ricksaw there. Picketers set fire to a bus and a three-wheeler auto-rickshaw and also damaged a passenger bus in the area around 10:30am. Law enforcers also foiled a procession of Jagannath University unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal near court area, leaving four injured. They also picked up two from the spot. Unidentified persons hurled two molotov cocktails from the rooftop of a building at Shahjahanpur around 9:40am, said Lt Col Rafiqul Islam, commanding officer of Rapid Action Battalion-3. BNP enforced the hartal citing a number of issues including protesting filing of a case against party chairperson following recent clash at Arial Beel in Munshiganj, crash in share market and price hike of essentials. |
| Posted by:Fred |