Rangpur Division
Stray incidents of violence mark half-day hartal
Pickets damaged a motorbike at Central Road in Rangpur city during yesterday's half-day hartal.Photo: STAR
Stray incidents of violence marked the eight-hour-long Jubo Dal called hartal in Rangpur Division yesterday. The youth wing of main opposition BNP enforced the hartal from 6:00am, demanding immediate withdrawal of all 'false' cases against the party central leaders including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and their release. Our Rangpur correspondent reported that pickets vandalised the motorbike of Moinul Islam, a photojournalist of daily Prothom Alo, when he was taking snaps at Paira Chattar in the city around 11:45am. Protesting the incident, district correspondents and photojournalists of different media houses staged a sit-in for 15 minutes from 12 noon on the intersection. In another incident, pickets vandalised three battery-run auto-rickshaws in front of the Town Hall building in the city. Our Thakurgaon correspondent adds: Jubo Dal activists vandalised a Panchagarh-bound BRTC bus and a goods-laden truck on Thakurgaon-Dinajpur highway in 29 Miles area of Sadar upazila around noon. In Lalmonirhat, a chase and counter-chase took place between Jubo Dal activists and policemen for a few minutes at Mission Crossing Road in the district town around 8:30am, reports our correspondent. Gaibandha also saw chase and counter-chase in Palashbari upazila between cops and activists, reports our correspondent. Besides, pickets vandalised at least six motorbikes. The hartal was observed peacefully in Dinajpur, according to our correspondent. All the shopping arcades and educational institutions in the eight districts of the division remained closed during the hartal hours. Vehicular movement was thin but rickshaws were seen on the roads. Rangpur divisional unit Jubo Dal, youth wing of main opposition party BNP, called the hartal on January 2 in the eight districts of the division. Party sources said they called the hartal also to protest against the killings and arrests of opposition leaders and activists, price hike of essentials, electricity and fuel; violence at educational institutions; corruption and to press for restoration of the caretaker government system. Chhatra Dal and Swechchhasebak Dal of Rangpur divisional unit extended their support to the hartal.
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