The main opposition Awami League (AL) protesters went on the rampage yesterday in Gulistan and adjoining areas, damaging over 100 vehicles after the namaz-e-janaza of slain AL lawmaker Ahsanullah Master at Pallan Maidan.

Police chased the agitators and fired tear-gas canisters to disperse them and picked up a number of people from the troubled spots.

Earlier, thousands of mourners including frontline leaders of the AL and its different fronts and other political parties thronged Pallan Maidan in the morning to attend the namaz-e-janaza of Ahsanullah Master, also former president of AL's labour front Jatiya Sramik League.

A group of about 15 assailants

gunned down Ahsanullah and schoolboy Omar Faruq Ratan and wounded five others in a burst of gunfire al the ward-level conference of AL's volunteers' wing ShechchhasebakLeague at 12:30pm Friday.

Large numbers of people also attended the janaza. However, none of the leaders of ruling BNP took part in it.

Violence flared up at around 11:30am when angry opposition activists started damaging the nish-hour vehicles at random at Bangabandhu Square, Golap Shah Mazar, Noor Hossain Square, Baitul Mokarram (north gate) and Pallan intersection areas.

The vandalism prompted police to fire tear shells, forcing bus drivers and conductors and passengers and

pedestrians to run for cover. Shop-owners shut up their shops and street hawkers fled, leaving Gulistan area almost deserted for about half an hour.

The body of Ahsanullah Master MR draped in the national flag and flags of Awami League and Sramik League, was brought to AL headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue from Dhaka Medical College I lospital in the morning.

Party leaders and workers placed wreaths on the coffin of the slain labour leader there. The coffin was then taken to Paltan Maidan for the first janaza at around 11:00am.

Top political leaders and hundreds of leaders and workers of different organisations turned up at Pallan Maidan and along with com mon people, they placed wreaths at the coffin.

Jatiya Party Chairman and former president HM Ershad, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) President Hasanul Huq Inu and Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) General Secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim took part in the janaza. The AL leaders and workers broke down in tears when the slain leader's body was being taken to Gazipur after the janaza.

There were also news of damage of vehicles by unidentified groups of people around the city including Jatrabari and Mohakhali areas reportedly to protest the AL MP's killing.

BODYHANDED

Earlier, DMCH authorities handed the body ofAhsanullah Master to his eldest son Jabid Hassan Russel at around 10.30am. Over 1,000 workers of AL and its front organisations including AL central leaders Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin and Akhtaruzzaman and the slain MP's relatives were present.

The autopsy on the body was complete at 10:15am and morgue sources said three bullets pierced through his body. Schoolboy Ratan's brother Nur Mohammad Sujan received his body Friday evening

ROAD, RAIL LINKS THRU'GAZIPUR STILL SNAPPED

Road and rail communications through Gazipur remained snapped yesterday as rampaging protesters in Tongi and adjoining areas stopped vehicles on Dhaka-Mymensingh road and barred railway engineers from mending uprooted rail line to protest Friday's killing of Awami League (AL) lawmaker Ahsanullah Master.

The AL has called hartal in Gazipur for tomorrow to protest the savage incident at a meeting being held beside his house at Noagaon in Tongi.

Police, meanwhile, arrested about 400 people till last night for their alleged involvement in vandalising vehicles and offices of the ruling BNP and its front organisations since Friday.

Thousands of people blurred the political divide to join the slain lawmaker's namaz-e-janaza at Paltan Maidan, Joydevpur and Tongi Biswa Ijtema Maidan before he was buried at their family graveyard at Hyderabad in Tongi.

The victim's family said at 8:30 last night that they were preparing to file a case with Tongi Police Station for the murder.

Defying a virtual curfew, hundreds of protesters blocked different points of the roads from Gazipur Chourasta (intersection) to Tongi Bridge in the morning. They burnt tyres to block traffic and set fire to a BRTC double-decker, a passenger bus and a cargo container, which were vandalised Friday, at Board Bazar. Fire-fighters put out the flames at 11:00am, but the protesters set fire to them again.

As some passenger buses and a staff bus of a garment factory tried to ply the road, the protesters chased those away to Gazipur intersection. Some protesters at Board Bazar looted the carrier of a dairy milk factory.

Long-route and local passenger buses from northern districts dropped passengers at the intersection, prompting hundreds of stranded passengers to walk on both sides of the road to Dhaka and Gazipur intersection with their belongings.

Only rickshaws plied the road apart from buses and vans carrying police and paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles. The rickshaw-pullers made the most of the opportunity, charging fares much higher than usual.

Some women were sitting with their boxes and bundles at a filling station near Gazipur intersection. "We boarded a bus from Mymensingh and paid double the fare to go to Mohakhali, but the bus staff dropped us here. They said they would not go further, nor did they give us the change," said Amena Begum, who was heading for her daughter's house atTejgaon.

ENGINES STONED, SET AFIRE

Protesters stoned and forced an emergency railway engine carrying spares to turn its back after railway officials attempted to replace railway tracks that a mob had removed on Friday at Dhirasram Railway Station in between Tongi and Joydevpur. Agitated people also assaulted the engine driver. Some protesters, meanwhile, set fire to a rail engine in between Tongi and Dhirasram Railway Station. Railway officials could not say when rail links with the northern part will restore.

WHOLESALE

ARREST

Since the eruption of violence on friday afternoon following Ahsanullah's death, police raided different parts of Gazipur and arrested around 400 people. A top police official said on condition of anonymity that the arrests were made to stop organised violence by the protesters.

But Duty Officer at Tongi Police Station Sub-inspector Mustafizur Rahman told The Daily Star on telephone that they arrested 40 people for damaging vehicles. "But we've not arrested anyone for the

killings," he added.

CASETO

BE FILED

As rumours ran high that the government has filed a case against 5,000 protesters, Government Railway Police (GRP) said at 8:30pm that a process was on to file a case with GRP for uprooting rail line and setting fire to trains at Tongi.

MOTIVE FOR

THE KILLING

"Some unknown people planted a time bomb in Ahsanullah's room at Noagaon MA Majid High School in 2002. After a student stumbled into a thin cable, army experts retried the bomb and defused it," said Rashidul Haq, a cousin of the slain lawmaker.

"We think the same people attacked our office one and a half months back," said Mohammed Bablu, general secretary of ward No. 3 (Tongi) unit of Jubo League, who took a bullet in his left leg on Friday.

Many locals told The Daily Star that BNP activists laid a siege to Tongi municipal office on May 4 and demanded removal of Ahsanullah Master and municipal chairman Azmatullah Khan for 'irregularities'.

They hoisted black flags in Tongi to express no-confidence in the two leaders who were elected for two consecutive terms, some locals said and termed the hoisting of black flags as a prelude to the killing.

Others alleged that those who failed to win against Ahsanullah in the parliamentary elections masterminded the killing to remove him from their way. "He made some enemies as he was vocal about putting an end to violence and drug-peddling here," Bablu noted. THOUSANDS ATTEND

TONGI JANAZA

Thousands of people joined the namaz-e-janaza of Ahsanullah Master yesterday at the Tongi Biswa Ijtema ground and later brought out mourning processions demanding immediate arrest and punishment of the killers.

A large number of people, other than AL supporters, also came from the capital, Gazipur, Narsingdi and Narayanganj to join the janaza.

The lawmaker was buried at his village home at Haidarabad in Gazipur Sadar Upazila in the evening.

Life in the entire Gazipur district, including the industrial town of Tongi, virtually came to a standstill yesterday as plying of motorised vehicles on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and adjacent roads remained suspended and shops, business houses and educational institutions remained closed.

Attendance at government offices was also thin.

Police and paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) personnel were deployed at all road crossings and important places in the area. People wore black badge and hoisted black flag on their houses.

AL central leaders who joined the janaza included acting President of the party Abdus Samad Azad, General Secretary Abdul Jalil, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in parliament Abdul Hamid, Amir Hossain Amu, Obaidul Kader, Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin and Ali Ashraf.

President of the newly floated political party, Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh, and former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, his son Mahi B Chowdhury and general secretary of the party Major (retd) Abdul Mannan also took part in the janaza.

RULING COALITION BLAMED

Speaking on the occasion, AL central leaders blamed the ruling coalition for the killing of the opposition lawmaker. He was killed following directives from the 'government high-ups' because he was very popular in the area, they said.

They also vowed to intensify the ongoing anti-government movement to expedite its fall.

Abdus Samad Azad said the killing ofAhsanullah Master was an onslaught on democracy, independence and sovereignty of the country.

Abdul Jalil said the lawmaker was killed because of his resolute stand against the present government. He hoped people would avenge his killing by unseating the government.

LAST GLIMPSE

People including women and children started gathering at the lawmaker's house from early morning to have a last glimpse of the leader and to express their shock and sympathise with the bereaved family members.

Local people said Ahsanullah lived a very simple life and stayed at a rented house in Tongi till recently. Of late he built a small house near Noagaon MA Mazid Mian School, where he was a teacher all his life, but he was yet to shift his family to that house.

AL supporters and other locals alleged that police conducted raids in several areas of the district following the killing and picked up dozens of people, mainly Chhatra League and Juba League leaders and workers.