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Download PDF The third day of the countrywide indefinite blockade enforced by 14-party coalition passed peacefully yesterday, unlike on Monday, continuing to cripple normal life for three consecutive days in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
Trading was on, albeit on a smaller scale, in Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges, and a little activity was noticed inside the Chittagong port.
Except some minor stray incidents of confrontations, Awami League (AL)-led 14-party coalition activists reigned on the streets with marches and rallies almost without any challenge at 22 points in Dhaka city demanding immediate realisation of their 11-point charter of demands.
But tension was mounting as fear of violence ran high at several points in the city and elsewhere in the country as BNP-led four-party alliance held rallies to counter AL demonstrations.
The capital still remains cut off from the rest of the country and land ports are still inactive due to the blockade.
Meanwhile, Mongla port still remains inactive, while no goods were transported at Chittagong port although there was a little bit of activity inside the port.
Train communication was disrupted in different places due to the blockade, while a very few launches left Sadarghat Launch Terminal due to low number of passengers.
The railway control room last evening told The Daily Star that 10 trains could not leave Kamalapur Railway Station yesterday while about 10 other trains were stopped on the tracks by blockaders across the country.
THE CAPITAL
Activists of 14-party coalition brought out marches, held rallies, burnt tires and effigies of Chief Election Commissioner MA Aziz at different points across the capital just like the previous two days of the blockade.
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and several non-political groups and organisations yesterday expressed their solidarity with the coalition enforced programme.
Apart from the tension arising from BNP’s counter programmes, the blockaders were found to be in a festive mood.
They kept performing skits on the present CEC, sang folk songs and danced at intervals of speeches from makeshift stages on truck beds decorated colourfully with banners and placards.
Meanwhile, several crackers were blasted at an open space near North South Road yesterday evening close to a 14-party rally triggering tension among the ralliers.
The blockaders vandalised several vehicles at Badda yesterday morning.
Meanwhile, our correspondents roaming the capital yesterday reported that the number of blockaders increased yesterday at different points.
The numbers of rickshaws and auto-rickshaws were very low on the streets during the day hours which in the afternoon saw an increase.
The coalition leaders in their speeches yesterday protested the police killing of one of their men and police attacks on many others, and criticised President Iajuddin Ahmed for bringing his press secretary into the council of advisers despite allegations against him.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police yesterday imposed a ban on mass gatherings and processions all over the city leaving only a few spots out of the ban for demonstrations.
THE COUNTRY
In Chittagong, several persons were injured in a clash between 14-party and four-party activists.
In Mymensingh, at least 25 activists of the rival alliances were injured in a clash at Ram Babu Road in the town yesterday.
The clash ensued when a four-party procession from a BNP office came face to face with a 14-party procession at Ganginarpar area at 5:00pm.
They got locked in a clash which left 25 injured. Police fired 30 teargas shells to bring the situation under control. Fifteen of the injured were rushed to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital. Seven of them were admitted there.
In Pabna, the district administration yesterday imposed section 144 banning political gatherings in the district headquarters following announcement of political programmes at the same place by the rival alliances.
As 14-party men put up a blockade at Singa bypass road on Dhaka-Pabna highway, BNP men brought out a march on the highway. Police however put up a barricade in front of a Jamaat-e-Islami office preventing its leaders and activists from bringing out any procession from there.
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