Police shooting, arrest, arson mark 72-hour strike, non-stop blockade

Violence, police shooting, arrest and arson mark the third day of 72-hour countrywide shutdown coinciding with non-stop road-rail-waterway blockade sponsored by Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance United News of Bangladesh.
A number of pro-and-anti-strike processions are being organised at various locations of the city.
At least seven people were killed and 16 others injured when a petrol bomb was thrown into a bus at Jogmohonpur in Chauddagram upazila on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway early Tuesday.
An activist of Islami Chhatra Shibir was shot by police at Japani Bazar area in the city’s Shanir Akhra on Tuesday morning.
The arrestee was identified as Abdul Hamid alias Sayem.
Sayem is a master’s student of the social science department of Dhaka College, said Jamal Uddin, assistant publicity secretary of Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Officer-in-charge of Kadamtali Police Station Abdus Salam Miah said a group of Shibir activists brought out a procession in the area at about 7:30 am.
Police tried to disperse the Shibir men when a chase and counter-chase began between them.
At one stage, police opened fire on the procession, leaving Sayem injured with bullets. Police then arrested Sayem as his associates fled.
Sayem has been admitted to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital under police custody.
A bus was torched by pickets at Chowdhury Para in the city’s Malibagh area on Tuesday morning. Witnesses said a group of miscreants set fire to the bus of ‘Prochesta Paribahan’ there around 7:00 am.
Informed, a fire fighting unit rushed to the spot and doused the blaze. None was, however, seriously injured.
At a Shahjadpur location, pickets blasted 10 crude bombs and fled around 7:30 am, witnesses said. Here, too, none was injured in the blast.
Meanwhile, police arrested three people who were allegedly possessing 12 crude bombs from Baunia Beri Badh in the city’s Mirpur. The arrestees were identified as Ismail, driver of ‘Safety Paribahan’ and its two helpers Swapan and Hridoy.
Officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station Zia-uz-Zaman said responding to a tip, a team of police conducted a drive in the area around midnight and arrested Swapan and Hridoy along with those 12 homemade bombs.
Later, police opened fire as Ismail was trying to flee the scene. He was injured.
Police arrested Ismail and took him to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
In their preemptive action, police also arrested at least 24 leaders and activists of BNP and Jamaat-Shibir in several drives in the last 24 hours.
Deputy Commissioner (Media) of DMP Masudur Rahman said all of them were arrested as part of preemptive measures.
The BNP and its allies on Friday called the shutdown from 6:00am on Sunday to 6:00am Wednesday protesting against the ruling party’s threat to ‘blow out’ the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office and arrest her and the prime minister’s instruction to ‘suppress the movement’ by any means, said a party statement.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia had announced the indefinite blockade on January 5 as the government did not allow her party to hold a protest rally in the capital.
Associated Press adds: It is the latest in a series of arson attacks allegedly carried out by opposition activists that have killed at least 53 people have died since Jan. 5 as the opposition alliance led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia enforces a nationwide transportation blockade called to force prime minister Sheikh Hasina to step down.
The Jan. 5 was the one-year anniversary of Hasina’s return to power. Khaleda Zia had planned an anti-government rally in Dhaka on that day, but police refused to allow it due to violence worries. Khaleda Zia then announced a nonstop transportation blockade until Sheikh Hasina resigns.
But many buses, often escorted by police and para-military border guards, have been running, sparking attacks around the country. Authorities blame opposition activists and hired goons for the attacks. Khaleda Zia and her aides say the opposition is not involved.
Tuesday was also the last day of a 72-hour nationwide general strike enforced by the opposition.
Khaleda Zia’s party and its partners — who had demanded that a neutral administration oversee the election — boycotted the last vote in 2014, allowing Sheikh Hasina to win a five-year term. Hasina says new elections will not be held until her term ends in 2019, adding, the nation cannot suffer because of a ‘wrong political decision.’
The new phase of violence ended a year of relative calm as political violence left nearly 300 people dead in 2013.
Khaleda Zia was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, but failed to hand over power peacefully. A military-backed caretaker government then ruled the country for two years before Sheikh Hasina came to power with a landslide election win in 2008.
Truck driver, helper killed in arson in Barisal
A truck driver and his assistant were killed on Tuesday when some miscreants hurled a petrol bomb on their truck at Dewan Bari of Barisal-Dhaka highway in Gournadi on early Tuesday.
The victims were identified as truck driver, Nur Hosain Shikdar, 31, a resident of Kalaiya in Baufal and the helper, Zafar Rari, 26, hailed from Dashmina in Patuakhali.
Sajjad Hosain, Gournadi police station officer-in-charge, said a Barisal bound truck fell into a roadside ditch about 12:30am as driver lost the control over the steering after the arson attack at Dewan Bari.
15 arrested in Gazipur
At least 15 people were arrested on early Tuesday from different places in Gazipur in connection with the arson attack on a commuter train in Sreepur on Monday.
Officer-in-charge of Shreepur Police station, Mohsinul Kadir, said that he suspected that those people were involved in throwing the petrol bomb into the Jamalpur-bound ‘Commuter Express’ train near Sreepur Railway Station.