BNP announces 2-day agitation
80 held during hartal
Police cordon off BNP’s Naya Paltan office in the capital during the nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Sunday.
Photo: STAR/Palash KhanStar Online Report
The BNP announced a two-day protest programme which includes countrywide demonstration, as a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal passed off almost peacefully on Sunday.
Announcing the programme in the afternoon, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, acting secretary general of the party, said they will stage a rally in the capital on Monday and countrywide demonstrations the next day to protest “the attacks and mass arrests” of their men during the strike.
Police picked up at least 80 leaders and activists of BNP and its party wings from the capital and elsewhere in the country during the shutdown.
Three cocktails were exploded near BNP’s Naya Paltan office and Mirpur.
BNP and its key ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami enforced the hartal since 6:00am demanding the caretaker system must stay in place for holding parliamentary elections. Other constituents of the four-party political alliance and like-minded parties extended support to the hartal.
Police detained 30 activists of BNP and its party wings, including a former Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leader of Dhaka University, when they tried to enter BNP’s central office at Naya Paltan, which remained almost cordoned off by police since the morning.
Mirza Fakhrul, also senior joint secretary general of the party, and many other leaders were also present there.
Police dispersed the leaders and activists at around 11:05am after two cocktails were exploded on a road near the BNP office.
The law enforcers also held 14 BNP men from Mohakhali crossing in the morning while they were trying to bring out a procession.
Meanwhile, three JCD men were picked up in front of Raysaheb Bazar in old part of Dhaka city at about 10:45am as they were attempting to bring out a procession.
A cocktail was exploded in front of Mukto Bangla shopping complex in Mirpur-1 at about 10:30am, leaving a rickshaw-puller seriously injured.
A number of motorised vehicles were seen plying in Mirpur and Pallabi as the activists and leaders of Awami League and its associate organisations riding on around 50 motorcycles were patrolling the areas to prevent picketing in the morning.
In Chittagong, police captured three people from Dewanhat and two others from Ek Kilometre area of Chandgaon in the city when they were picketing at about 9:30am, reports our staff correspondent.
Our Noakhali correspondent reports, police held 14 people from different parts of the district during the hartal hours.
They shot 15 rounds of bullets to bring the situation under control when pro-hartal activists ransacked five trucks at Afania Bazar in Begumganj upazila at about 10:00am.
Rtv district correspondent Monir Hossain and cameraperson Moshiur Rahman sustained injuries in an attack by pickets while they were taking pictures’ of police action on them.
Police charged batons on a BNP procession at Dattarhat at about 9:30am, injuring 10 people.
Our Narayanganj correspondent reports, 10 BNP men were injured when police charged batons on their procession at DIT commercial area in the town at about 6:30am.
Police picked up nine people, including BNP joint secretary of town unit Moksudul Alam Khandakar Khorshed and District Jubo Dal President Mamun Mahmud, from the spot.
In Narsingdi, 20 people were injured during a chase and counter chase between police and BNP activists at Bazirmore in the town. Police held five people from the spot.
At least 30 BNP men were injured in separate clashes with cops in Kaliajuri upazila and Netrakona town.
Faruque Ahmed, JCD general secretary of Barhatta upazila, was arrested during the hartal, reports our Netrakona correspondent.
The announcement for the simultaneous programme came from separate press briefings held by BNP and Jamaat on June 1 to protest what both parties said the government move to scrap the provision for caretaker government system in the constitution.
Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) and Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), two other components of the BNP-led four-party alliance, extended support for the hartal.
Two other like-minded parties -- Bangladesh National Awami Party (NAP) and National Democratic Party (NDP) -- also suppotred the hartal call.
The announcement of hartal came hot in the heels of a political debate brewing over the dissolution of the CG system by the Supreme Court.
The Appellate Division on May 10 in a verdict declared the caretaker government system unconstitutional and void, but observed that the system may be practiced for holding two more parliamentary elections for the sake of "safety of the state and its people".
On Monday, the premier did not give consent to continuation of the interim government system when the parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendment, at a meeting with the PM, proposed two different models of caretaker government for two more general elections.
It is the fifth hartal of BNP. Earlier, BNP observed four hartal programmes on June 27, November 14 and 30 last year and February 7 this year to realise it’s various demanded.