pate of arson attacks on transports Two more violence victims die, fresh 72-hour hartal begins today.

At least seven vehicles were burnt in a spate of arson attacks in Dhaka and Narayanganj as two more arson victims died in hospital on Saturday, the 54th day of the opposition alliance’s nonstop blockade. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance announced a fresh round of 72-hour hartal from 6:00am today, apparently in a bid to spur a slackening blockade, to press for immediate holding of a participatory and acceptable election under a non-party administration to ‘restore democracy and establish people’s voting rights’. The alliance also announced countrywide mass processions for today. The deaths of two more burn victims raised the toll to 115 since the BNP-led alliance enforced the transport blockade on January 6 along with intermittent hartals. Of them, 59 were killed in firebomb attacks by suspected blockaders. The two people who had suffered burns in separate firebomb attacks on transports in Narayanganj died in Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Saturday.

Day labourer Kabir Hossain, 30, died in DMCH early Saturday from head injuries he had suffered in an arson attack on a pickup at Tarabo in Narayanganj on Friday night. Five others on the pickup also sustained burn injuries and were undergoing treatment at the DMCH burn unit. Police said that Kabir had suffered fatal head injuries as he jumped off the burning pickup after the attack by suspected blockaders. Bus helper Shakil Ahmed, 18, died at the ICU of the burn unit around 3:45pm. Shakil and his colleague Yasin suffered burns when miscreants set fire to a bus parked at Bhulka, Rupganj in Narayanganj on February 25. In the capital, miscreants torched at least five vehicles at Banani, Jatrabari and Mouchak in the evening. Two covered vans and a bus were set on fire at Jatrabari and a car of private Desh TV was torched at Mouchak. No casualties were reported. Miscreants also exploded some 15 crude bombs in front of the Desh TV office at Mouchak. A minibus was set ablaze at Kakoli level crossing around 7:00pm, said Banani police sub-inspector Shah Alam. New Age Gazipur correspondent reported that a youth was grievously injured in an explosion when he was making crude bombs in his house in Rawshan Sarak area at Chandana in Gazipur city on Saturday morning. He was identified as Md Alim, 34, son of Jamir Uddin Munshi of the area. Locals said Alim’s hands were blown off at wrists in the blast.

Police arrested Alim and took him to Gazipur Sadar Hospital before he was shifted to Dhaka Orthopaedic Hospital. Life went on as usual defying bomb blasts and arson attack on transports while operation of buses on inter-district and long routes was steadily increasing.  Most of the trains are leaving and arriving at Kamalapur railway station on time, said a railway officer. Ferry services remained unaffected. Trucks and covered vans carrying goods which usually came under arson attack during the blockade and hartal were plying in an increasing number day by day, said a leader of the drivers of trucks and covered vans. Kamlapur Railway station manager Sitangshu Chakrabarty told New Age on Saturday that inter-city trains except two or three were running on time. President of Bangladesh truck and covered-van drivers union Md Humayun Kabir told New Age on Saturday that About 20,000- 25,000 trucks and covered-vans were running all over the country everyday. Shyamoli Paribahan and Rozina Enterprise countermen at Gabtoli bus terminal said their buses were leaving the capital for outlying districts only in daytime while buses on some routes in the northern region were still plying in less numbers. Transport operators, including Shyamoli, Shohag, Hanif and Nabil have not yet resumed luxury bus services on long routes. Transport leader and Shyamoli Paribahan managing director Ramesh Chandra Ghosh told New Age that at present about 70 per cent long-route buses were running all over the country. BRTC Motijheel depot officials confirmed that the corporation buses were operating between Dhaka and Brahmanbaria, Monohardi, Daudkandi and Benapole. Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association secretary general K Enayet Ullah said the situation was ‘normal’ at present. The government might soon withdraw the restrictions on operation of long route buses at night, he added.

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