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Relaxed hartal

Bus set on fire in Ctg; 53 arrested

Staff Correspondent
The countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal enforced by 12 Islamist parties yesterday passed almost peacefully amid arrest of at least 53 people, including 45 in Dhaka, and torching of a BRTC bus in Chittagong.
Pickets also damaged at least 10 vehicles in the capital and elsewhere in the country during the hartal called to protest police obstruction in their Saturday's programme against an anti-Islam film at the Jatiya Press Club.
They also brought out a few processions at the very beginning of the
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strike, but none of them was seen later in the day.
State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku yesterday said the main opposition BNP was behind the hartal and attacks on police, not the 12 like-minded Islamist parties.
"[BNP chairperson] Khaleda Zia's party is trying to create anarchy in the country. BNP and Shibir [Islami Chhatra Shibir, pro-Jamaat students' body] took part in the attack on police in front of the press club," he told reporters at his Secretariat office.
Witnesses said traffic movement was relatively poor in the morning, but it got intensified later. Long-route buses did not ply anywhere, but movement of trains, lunches and planes was quite normal.
Almost all the educational institutions remained closed. Most of the shopping malls, markets and roadside shops kept their shutters down in the first half of the day, but they started business in the second half. Banking activities remained normal all day long.
Additional law enforcers were deployed at different key points in the capital, including the press club, Paltan and Baitul Mukarram National Mosque and other parts of the country.
The hartal was not observed in Rangpur, Dinajpur and Bogra as Khaleda Zia was scheduled to address rallies there.
Jafar Ullah Khan, general secretary of Sammilita Olama Mashayekh Parishad, called the shutdown on Saturday following a clash with police.
The law enforcers barred them as Dhaka Metropolitan Police imposed a ban on holding rallies in Paltan, Baitul Mukarram, Kakrail, Dainik Bangla intersection,
Bijoynagar and adjacent areas from 5:00pm on Friday till further orders.
Police sources say 53 people were arrested during the hartal. Of them, 37 were arrested in Jatrabari, eight in Mirpur and the rest elsewhere.
Witnesses said Jatrabari police arrested 37 picketers at Meer Hajirbagh at around 6:30am when they brought out a procession blocking the road.
AKM Abul Kashem, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari police, told The Daily Star they detained teachers and students of Tamirul Millat Madrasa at Mir Hajirbagh as they attacked law enforcers with brickbats.
A police official was injured during the incident, the OC added.
Mirpur police said they arrested eight hartal activists as they were trying to damage buses and obstruct traffic movement at Shewrapara, Kazipara and Mirpur around 10:30am.
Pickets vandalised a BRTC double-decker bus and set it on fire at Badamtali intersection in Agrabad around 9:45am. Police detained five people from the spot, reports our Chittagong office.
Pahartali OC Mainul Islam said seven to eight handmade bombs were hurled at Barapul intersection around 10:00am, but nobody was wounded.
Bakalia police said pickets vandalised two Green Line Volvo buses at Tulatali around 9:00am when those were on way to Cox' s Bazar.
Activities inside the Chittagong Port were carried out normally with goods loaded and unloaded at different jetties and outer anchorage, said Alauddin Miyan, acting secretary of Chittagong Port Authority.
Cargos from the port were also delivered as usual, he added.
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