Bangladesh News

Normal life and business activities came to a standstill as an indefinite blockade programme enforced by the 14-party alliance demanding implementation of its 11-point task started yesterday across the country. The first day’s blockade passed off almost peacefully.

In general, the activists of the Awami League-led alliance followed the police ban on carrying sticks and oars at rallies and gathering. A few places, however, witnessed defying of the ban.

The capital was cut off from the rest of the country on the first day of the countrywide blockade.

The demonstrators damaged train carriages and buses at different places of the country.

However, as both demonstrators and law enforcers did not resort to any extreme measures, no major incidents of violence were reported except for a few stray ones, including a firing in Bogra that left six bullet-hit.

Activities at the Chittagong and Mongla ports came to a total halt. No activities were also seen at any of the land ports.

Dhaka Stock Exchange remained closed although Chittagong Stock Exchange was open. Transactions at the banks were insignificant.

The government and semi-government offices remained open but presence was thin.

The countrywide blockade is the first ever demonstration against a caretaker government.

AL President Sheikh Hasina on Saturday declared the blockade programme on behalf of the 14-party alliance observing that Chief Adviser to the present caretaker government President Iajuddin Ahmed has failed to prove his neutrality since assuming office.

The alliance asked its activists to cut the communication over road, rail and river to paralyse the country. The alliance leaders said they will continue the blockade until their demands are met.

Six persons, including three BNP men and two AL adherents, received bullet injuries in a clash between the two parties in front of Sonatola AL office in Bogra yesterday afternoon.

The clash ensued when someone from a passing procession of the BNP threw brickbats on a 14-party rally at about 4:30pm. During the chaos, fires were shot and several crackers were blasted that left the six bullet-hit.

The injured are BNP activists Badsha, 40, Zahedul, 45, and Mukul, 40, Jubo League activists Helal, 28, and Rabbani, 30, and a pedestrian.

In Kishoreganj, three persons were injured when BNP and Jamaat workers locked in clashes with 14-party activists. The police intervened to bring the situation under control.

THE CAPITAL

A festive mood was seen among the 14-party leaders and activists gathering at Paltan, Muktangan, Noor Hossain intersection, and Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital during the blockade yesterday. Participants sang folk songs during intervals between speeches while many youths with red bands tied around forehead were seen dancing.

The demonstrators dominated the streets in Mirpur, Pallabi and Gabtoli since morning.

The first day’s blockade passed off almost peacefully in the capital except for incidents of vandalising glasses of two buses and the windshield of a Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) pickup van.

Demonstrators assembled at the Mirpur-10 roundabout, Pallabi bus stand and Mazar Road in the morning. They held rallies and sang patriotic and party songs.

The Gabtoli Bus Terminal remained idle all day long with no buses leaving or arriving. No vehicles except rickshaws were seen on the Dhaka-Chittagong and Kanchpur-Narsingdi highways.

Two persons–Rokonuzzaman, 26, a Jatiyatabadi Samajtantrik Dal activist, and a pedestrian–suffered burn injuries while setting fire to an effigy of Chief Election Commissioner MA Aziz.

Activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) of Jahangirnagar University set fire to a passenger bus on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway in the morning.

The police picked up three BCL activists for picketing on the highway but released them later. A Rab member beat up an on-duty security guard for not being able to identify who set ablaze the law enforcement agency’s vehicle.

THE COUNTRYbr>Activities at the Chittagong Port came to a total halt yesterday afternoon while all road communications to and from Chittagong also remained snapped.

Some loading and unloading of cargoes took place at the port jetties until around 3:30pm when workers loyal to the 14-party alliance forced others to stop all kind of operations inside the port.

Administrative activities, however, were quite normal at Bandar Bhaban although presence was less than usual.

Tension arose when Rab men tried to escort three truckloads of goods to Dhaka but ultimately retreated in the face of strong resistance from hundreds of 14-party activists at Olonkar Intersection.

The 14-party activists laid blockade in front of the Bandar Bhaban, on connecting roads to the port, at jetty-3, Nimtola, Agrabad Barik Building crossing, Olonkar Intersection at Pahartoli, Kalurghat and both ends of the Shah Amanat Bridge. They also damaged a few vehicles at City Gate and Barik Building crossing and set fire to some tyres.

The railway authorities cancelled the schedule of the Dhaka-bound Subarna Express although other trains left the Chittagong Railway Station with small number of passengers.

In Brahmanbaria, demonstrators pelted brickbats at a Bhairab-bound local train at the Poyertala outer signal of Brahmanbaria Railway Station, damaging several windowpanes and forcing the train to return to the station. All trains on the Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Sylhet and Dhaka-Noakhali routes remained halted at different points in and out of the station.

Train service from Sylhet remained suspended after Dhaka-bound Jayontika Express left the district at 7:30am.

Demonstrators damaged a truck and a private car at Jagannathganj and in Jamalpur town while some others damaged a pickup van at Maijdee Bazar in Noakhali.

In Nilphamari, 14-party workers stopped four trains at two rail stations of the district in the morning. They stopped the Khulna Mail at Nilphamari Old Station at dawn while Khulna-bound Rupsha Express and Rocket Mail and Rajshahi-bound Barendra Express were detained by agitating railway workers at the Saidpur Station.

In Moulvibazar, the engine of Sylhet-bound Jalalabad Express that started from Chittagong Saturday night derailed near Longla Railway Station in Kulaura upazila at 10:00am as the 14-party men uprooted railway slippers. No causality was reported.

The 14-party activists gathered at Kulaura junction station to put barricade, but resisted by the law enforcers, they attacked the station building and damaged door and window glasses.

In Sirajganj, 17 persons were injured at two places while a band of pickets vandalised two trucks at Nalka and a few compartments of a Dhaka-bound train at Ullapara.

Activities at Hili and Biral land ports in Dinajpur and Banglabandha land port in Panchagarh came to a standstill while the blockade completely paralysed the entire Khulna city and all activities at the Mongla Port.

In Munshiganj, the BNP announced counter blockade programmes. Paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) was deployed to avert any untoward situation.

14-party in support of their blockade programme brings out a procession, left, from Cherag Ali shopping centre in Tongi yesterday that marched towards Tongi Railway Station; Activists of 14-party stopped a train at Tongi Rail Gate and set fire to one of its seats. PHOTO: STAR