Blockade\\\'s 43rd day passes amid arson, blasts, arrests

The BNP-led 20-party Alliance extended its ongoing countrywide hartal by another 48 hours alongside the non-stop blockade that passed the 43rd consecutive day on Tuesday amid arson attacks, blasts and arrests.
A press release of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), issued by its joint secretary general Salah Uddin Ahmed, said the fresh call of hartal will come into effect from 6:00 am Wednesday.
According to the statement, the general strike will be observed all over the country, protesting what it said killing party leaders and activists in the name of crossfire, their mass arrest and filing false cases against them, restoring voting rights and democracy, repression on journalists, controls on media, and the government's interference in judiciary.
It also said the shutdown is extended along with the blockade, enforced by the alliance since January 6.
Meanwhile, a leader of Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), a student front of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, was killed in an alleged shootout with the law-enforcers at Polashbari in Gaibandha early on the day.
Officer-in-charge (OC) of Polashbari Police Station Mojibur Rahman identified the deceased as Mostafa Monjil, a leader of the ICS' local unit and one of the key accused in the deadly arson attack on a passenger bus in the district that took away lives of eight people.
Quoting the local unit of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), he said the elite force men confronted a group of troublemakers at Tulsighat, and engaged in gunfight with the criminals at about 5:00 am. At one stage of the firing, Monjil was caught in the line of fire, and died on the spot.
Two loaded pistols, seven petrol bombs and a motorbike were recovered from there, he added.  
Reports of arson attacks, explosions and arrests came from various districts across the country, including -- Dhaka, Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Bogra, Feni, Chittagong, Comilla and Noakhali.
In the capital, pickets exploded cocktails in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Judge Court premises and in Paltan area in the afternoon. Law-enforcers also recovered cocktails from Rampura and Mohammadpur during the strike hours.
Unknown miscreants hurled two cocktails at a BRTC bus in front of National Press Club in the afternoon. One cocktail exploded inside the bus that left five passengers injured. Police also recovered the other cocktail, which remained unexploded, from the spot.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in overnight drives detained at least 16 BNP, Jamaat and Shibir men from different parts of the capital until 9:00 am Tuesday.
No major incident of violence was reported from anywhere in the country till filing of the report at around 7:30 pm.
In Chittagong, at least three people received burn injuries, when pickets in two separate incidents hurled petrol bombs at a pickup and a lorry in Rangunia and Bandar areas respectively.
Pro-hartal activists allegedly torched a goods-laden pickup van in the early hours in Bottola area of Rangunia through firebomb. The incident left three people, including its driver, critically wounded. Pickets also set ablaze a lorry in Bondor area, but no one was hurt in the incident.
In Moulvibazar Sadar, activists of 20-Party Alliance allegedly torched two trucks in the morning.
The Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Moulvibazar Sadar Police Station Abdus Salek said torching of the vehicles took place in Kamalpur Bazar area at around 6:05 am.
Fire-fighters rushed to the spot and doused the flame. None was hurt during the incident.
None was arrested in this connection, as the BNP-Jamaat men fled the scene soon after the incident, he added.
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