Jamaat-Shibir violence continues in Dhaka

Police on Wednesday fired in the air to disperse groups of stick-wielding Jamaat-Shibir activists who went berserk in parts of Dhaka.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 13 Feb 2013, 02:08 AM
Updated : 13 Feb 2013, 05:42 AM

They were involved in clashes with the police, smashed vehicles, set a bus on fire and threw stones and brickbats to create a scare.

Scores were reportedly injured. One police official was hospitalised.

The activists of the fundamentalist party, which sided with Pakistan and opposed the Liberation war in 1971, had gone on the rampage in parts of Dhaka on Tuesday as well.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Mehedi Hasan was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment after he was injured in the clashes with the Jamaat-Shibir supporters.

Police said more than 100 Jamaat-Shibir activists had been arrested since Wednesday morning.

Dhaka’s Motijheel, Paltan and Fokirerpool areas were affected by the turbulence as Islami Chhatra Shibir activists made repeated attempts to bring out flash processions in those areas and foment trouble.

Police said that the Jamaat-Shibir activists, drawn in from various parts of the country, were bent on creating trouble to torpedo the mass protests at Shahbagh, where thousands have assembled for the ninth day now to demand execution of all war criminals.

The Jamaat activists are also planning 'sabotage', police said.

The protests at Shahbagh have continued nonstop since Feb 5 when the International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Jamaat’s Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla to life in prison for killing, arson and other serious crimes involving the 1971 War of Liberation.

One bus was set on fire at the Dainik Bangla intersection in the morning around 10:00am, Fire Service and Civil Defence Control Room officials said.

Traffic was thin in the troubled areas after the clashes, bdnews24.com Correspondents reported.

Police said they fired in the air to control the Jamaat-unleashed violence.

Jamaat was mobilising its activists in Dhaka from across the country to create mayhem, police said.

Over a hundred Jamaat-Shibir activists have been arrested until afternoon, they said.

Thirty-four people suspected to be Jamaat activists were picked up from the Sadarghat terminal earlier in the day.

The Islamist party activists brought out a large procession at Motijheel around 7:30am, but broke ranks and fled after police appeared, witnesses said.

A second procession was reported around 8:30am in Shapla Chattar area. Police fired in the air to disperse them.

Later several simultaneous processions were brought from Dilkusha, Bangabandhu National Stadium, Paltan, Kakrail, Motijheel and adjacent areas. The protesters damaged several vehicles and lobbed brickbats at police.

Police chased them and fired in the air to disperse them once again.

Dhaka Metropolitan Deputy Commissioner Anwar Hossain justified the firing in the air to prevent untoward incidents.

Security measures were heightened in Paltan, Baitul Mukarram, Fakirapool, Motijheel areas to thwart Jamaat violence.

Meanwhile, police also fired in the air at Shyamoli, bdnews24.com correspondent reported in the morning.

Locals held a suspected Shibir activist in the stadium area in the morning and handed him over to police.