Pickets torch bus in city as hartal continues

A bus was torched by pickets in the city’s Farmgate area during the first day of the countrywide 48-hour fresh hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami. Fire Service sources said pickets set fire to the Gabtoli-bound bus from Jatrabari near the Daily Star office on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue around 8:25pm. Later, firefighters rushed in and doused the flame. However, there was no report of any injury or casualty in the incident. Besides, pro-hartal activists threw crude bombs at a public bus in the city’s Azimpur area around 8:10pm, but there was no report of any injury in the incident. The shutdown programme that began at 6am today ends at 6 am on Friday. Jamaat enforced the general strike protesting the death sentence awarded to its two leaders -- Mir Quasem Ali and M Kamaruzzaman-- for their war crimes, according to a news agency.