& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

LEFT-ALLIANCE HARTAL

30 hurt as police club pickets

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
About 30 people, including women, were injured as police clubbed pro-hartal pickets in the city yesterday during the countrywide dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by left-leaning 11-party alliance.
The strike called to press home an 11-point demand including removal of anti-liberation elements from the cabinet, arresting the price hike of essentials, stopping misrule, criminal activities and corruption, passed off relatively peacefully in other parts of the country.
Police picked up at least 36
people from different parts of the city during the hartal hours. At least three buses were damaged by pickets in the city.
Police in riot-gear used batons to disperse a pro-hartal mob near the Paltan intersection at about 9:10am when they tried to obstruct movement of vehicles through the area.
Luna Noor, president of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with head injuries, while General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Bangladesh Bimal Biswas, who also took police bashing, was treated at the DMCH.
Rashed Khan Menon, coordinator of the 11-party left alliance and president of the Workers' Party of Bangladesh, also came under police attack when he along with other senior leaders tried to rescue fellow workers. During the police swoop Menon fell on the street. However, he did not receive serious injury.
Police were seen clubbing and kicking the pro-hartal pickets indiscriminately during the attack. Some of the pickets lay on the street to prevent traffic movement.
Left-wing leaders blamed police for attacking the hartal pickets, specially women, without any provocation. But Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ashraful Huda at a press briefing refuted the allegation and said policemen were compelled to chase the pro-hartal pickets as they were pelting stones at vehicles.
Addressing a post-hartal rally at city's Muktangon, 11-party alliance leaders announced a fresh action programme including two-hour rail and road blockade from 12:00 noon to 2:00pm on January 8 as part of their continuous antigovernment agitation programme.
The hartal hours in Dhaka were marked by the movement of few motorised vehicles on the roads, closure of business establishments, shopping malls and educational institutions. Inter-district buses stayed off the road. Activities in government offices and banks went on with poor staff attendance.
Armed policemen stood guard at various points to crack down on troublemakers.
Movement of rickshaws yesterday, unlike other hartal days, was thin on city streets as a strike called by Rickshaw Malik Oikya Jote (an alliance of rickshaw owners) coincided with the 11-party alliance hartal call. The rickshaw owners called the strike to protest government measures making different city roads off-limit to rickshaws and demanding renewal of rickshaw licences.
At Muktangon rally the leftwing leaders said people have expressed their no-confidence in the present government by observing the hartal spontaneously.
They announced a demonstration in the city tomorrow in protest of yesterday's police 'atrocities.'
They also pledged to prevent anti-liberation elements from visiting the martyred intellectuals' graveyard and the national mausoleum today and on December 16.
Presided over by Rashed Khan Menon the rally was addressed by Manjurul Ahsan Khan, Dilip Barua, Nurur Rahman Selim, among others.
Our staff correspondent from Chittagong reports: The dawn-to-dusk hartal passed off peacefully in the port city.
Train service and flights ran normally with few passengers but motorised vehicles stayed off the roads till late noon affecting city life partially.
Delivery of goods to and from Chittagong Port was disrupted, port sources said.