Jamaat flexes muscle on hartal eve
15 vehicles damaged, 20 bombs exploded
A bus burns in the capital's Moghbazar after Jamaat-Shibir activists set it on fire on the eve of today's hartal. Photo: Banglar Chokh
Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and pro-Jamaat student organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir vandalised and torched over 15 vehicles and blasted some 20 homemade bombs in the capital on the eve of their call for hartal today. Police arrested 38 activists in this connection while pedestrians beat up another four on Panthapath, said eyewitnesses and police. Of the vehicles, five were torched in Dhaka University, Moghbazar, Islambagh, Mirpur and Tongi while at least 10 vandalised in Kamalapur Railway Station, Panthapath and Mohakhali areas. The bombs exploded on DU campus, Naya Paltan and Mohakhali. Officer-in-Charge Enamul Huq of Kalabagan Police Station said police fired six blank shots when the activists tried to vandalise vehicles in Panthapath. Equipped with heavy arms, weapons and Armoured Personnel Carriers, Rapid Action Battalion and policemen were deployed at nearly all of the capital's entrances, strategic points, establishments and markets to ensure security at today's hartal. Yesterday Jamaat's Chittagong unit did not hold any rally even after getting permission from the authorities. Police arrested five Jamaat men from Jhikorgacha and Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore and imposed Section 144, banning any gathering of more than four people, in Jessore town for today from 6:00am to 6:00pm. The ban came as Bangladesh Chhatra League and Jamaat called separate rallies at the same place and time. Police also arrested 10 Shibir men and a Jamaat leader from Sylhet city. Section 144 was also imposed in four Sylhet upazilas -- Biswanath, Fenchuganj, Beanibazar and Zakiganj -- for today to avert violence.
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