Buses asked to stay off highways at night

The government has asked intercity bus owners not to operate passenger bus on highways from 9:00pm to 6:00am, as the blockade enforced by the opposition BNP continued for the 35th day on Monday. The government conveyed the decision in a meeting with intercity bus owners where the owners expressed their concern about violence and arson attacks on buses during the blockade. Several more vehicles, mostly goods-laden vehicles, came under arson attack on Monday. A truck helper, who suffered burn injuries in an arson attack in the city on February 2, died at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) Monday afternoon.

In addition to the blockade, Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance also enforced the second day of the 72-hour countrywide general strike in protest against killing of ‘numerous’ opposition leaders and activists in the name of ‘crossfire’ and demanding ‘restoration’ of democracy. Presence of passengers on vehicles and visitors at offices and business establishments were thin as vehicles plied in lesser numbers on inter-district and long routes during daytime. ‘We will take additional measures to ensure security at vulnerable points on highways and hope the traffic movement on highways will return to normal in three to four days,’ state minister for home Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters after presiding over the meeting with transport owners and labour leaders.

Bus owners also decided that passenger buses will have to reach destinations by 9:00pm until the situation improves. Trains are still running behind schedule because of advance check of rail tracks – an initiative taken up following several incidents of derailment. Shahidul Islam, 35, succumbed to his injuries at the RMCH burn unit around 4:45pm after fighting for life for eight days, said in-charge of the unit Dr A Naznin, according to UNB. Shahidul sustained burn injuries when miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at his truck in Mollahpara Bypass area of the city around 8:30pm on February 2. Locals rescued the truck helper and rushed him to RMCH. He suffered burns on 25 percent on his body and his respiratory tract was badly damaged in the arson attack. The death toll from violence during the blockade enforced by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance since January 5 reached 92. Of them, over 50 were burnt to death and 26 were killed extra judicially, mostly in ‘shootout’ with law enforcers. On the second day of the hartal, pickets brought out only a few flash processions and charged crude bombs at places in the capital. Witnesses said miscreants charged crude bombs at Topkhana road, on the Dhaka University and Jagannath University campuses and in front of the office of deputy commissioner in Dhaka. BNP’s student front Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Jamaat-e-Islami’s student front Islami Chhatra Shibir brought out sudden processions at places in the capital. Two students of Dhaka University were detained by Rapid Action Battalion as they allegedly brought out a procession at the university’s Jagannath Hall area at about 8:00am.

The arrested were- Shafiul Shubho of statistics department and Hasanur Rahman of Arabic – also JDC activists. Miscreants also hurled a crude bomb near Dhaka district’s deputy commissioner office around 12:00pm. Crude bomb were also hurled at Topkhana area area at about 2:00pm. None, however, was injured in the incidents. Law enforcers arrested about 350 BNP and Jamaat activists and recovered several crude bombs from the capital and elsewhere in the country. BNP joint secretary general Salah Uddin Ahmed, in a statement, said the government will have to take all responsibility for the political impasse and the BNP-led alliance’s movement will continue till fall of the government. ‘People will feel secure about their lives and properities if Sheikh Hasina steps down, as the whole nation earnestly want your [Hasina] resignation’, Salah Uddin said. Urging the government to stop killing its activists in the name of ‘crossfire’ and gunfight, Islami Chhatra Shibir in a statement said the government will not be able to fulfill its ‘heinous dreams of staying in power standing on a heap of dead bodies.’ New Age Munshiganj correspondent reported pickets hurled petrol bombs on a book-laden truck in Gazaria upazila of Munshiganj Monday morning while a parked bus was set on fire near Old Ferry Ghat at Mawa of the district, sometime after midnight. About a tenth of the books on the truck were damaged in the arson attack, our Munshiganj correspondent reported. Truck helper Harunu-ur-Rashid suffered minor injuries when he jumped off the vehicle after the arson attack. Besides, at least two, including a photojournalist sustained bullet wounds when police opened fire at a procession of BNP.

Barisal correspondent reported miscreants launched arson attack on a fruits-laden pick-up with petrol bombs at Agoiljhara in Barisal on Sunday night. All of the three transport workers who were on the pick-up van, including the driver, did not get hurt. Fire brigade, besides locals, doused the fire later. New Age Bogra correspondent reported a car of Al Jazeera Bangladesh correspondent, which was clearly marked as a press vehicle, came under attack of petrol bomb in Bogra Sunday evening. No casualties, however, were reported as a petrol bomb which hit the car did not catch fire while another one fell just behind the car. Feni correspondent reported a day labourer was injured in a crude bomb attack and a covered-van driver was injured when blockaders threw bricks targeting the covered-van in Feni.

Our Jhenaidah correspondent said a SSC examinee sustained injuries when he kicked an abandoned crude bomb wrapped in a packet at Kanchannagarpara in Jhenaidah town Monday noon. He was rushed to Jhenaidah sadar hospital. Around 350 suspected BNP-Jamaat activists were rounded up on Monday from across the country. Of them, 17 in the capital, 42 in Gaibandha, two in Lakshmipur, 11 in Cox’s Bazar, 20 in Chittagong, nine in Gazipur, 24 in Mymensingh, 20 in Habiganj, 19 in Dinajpur, 47 in Rajshahi, 22 in Khulna, 16 in Comilla, 32 in Bogra, 12 in Sylhet, 11 in Jhenaidah, eight in Gazipur, six in Manikganj, six in Feni, five in Meherpur, five in Noakhali, three in Narail, two in Chandpur, two in Lalmonirhat, one each in Kusthia, Panchagar and Kurigram.

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