One killed as blockade runs thru 13th day

A truck helper was killed in Barisal early Sunday, the 13th straight day of non-stop nationwide blockade enforced by Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance. Nurul Islam, officer-in-charge of Wazirpur police station, said miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at a Faridpur-bound truck at Bamrail on Dhaka-Barisal highway at Wazirpur around 6:00am. The truck slid in to roadside ditch as the driver lost control over the steering. Driver Ripon got injured and managed to come out from the vehicle. The victim, Sohag, 18, was confined inside the truck and died of burn and hit injuries, the OC said. Simultaneously, a dawn-to-dusk general strike called by BNP-led alliance, protesting the confinement of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and political persecution was underway in the district on Sunday. Police detained BNP leader Sharif Taslima Kalam Poly, also panel mayor of Barisal City Corporation, for picketing in C and B Road area of the city this morning. In the capital, an arson attack on a Mirpur-bound bus left three students of Eden Mahila College injured. Miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at the bus along Sangsad Avenue this noon leaving Sathi Akter and Juthi Akter burnt. Another student, Maymuna, got injured as she jumped out of the bus.

The injured were rushed to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. The city commuters are facing shortage of buses as the vehicles have been diverted to carry devotees to and from Ijtema in Tongi, witnesses said. Rickshaws and CNG-run auto-rickshaws dominated the city streets. Most of the private vehicles were kept off the roads and that inter-district buses did not depart Dhaka. Additional policemen were deployed in the key points of the capital. Our correspondent reported that most of the trains fell heavily behind schedule across the country due to the non-stop blockade. Railway officials cited heavy security; shortage of locomotive and loco masters, as well as dense fog was responsible for break in schedules.

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