Grève générale : affrontements à হরতাল Dhaka – 5-6 juillet 2011

Clashes, picketing, arrests mark first day of hartal

thefinancialexpress-bd.com

7 07 2011

Dozens of people, including the opposition chief whip, were injured Wednesday, on the first day of the 48-hour nationwide hartal called by the BNP-Jamaat alliance that brought most of the country to a standstill.

Nearly 10,000 law-enforcers were deployed in the city to maintain law and order following pre-strike violence Tuesday, when picketers torched and damaged a number of vehicles causing immense sufferings to the commuters.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said they detained 45 protestors for their involvement in creating anarchy in the capital. Ten mobile teams sentenced 12 people to various jail terms for holding unlawful protests and damaging vehicles.

Of the arrested persons, 10 activists were detained from Kafrul, 10 from Paltan, nine from Mirpur, eight from Gulshan and seven from Chalkbazar during the general strike.

« The strike was largely peaceful except some isolated incidents. Twelve people were jailed through trials, » a senior DMP official said. He, however, could not mention the exact number of the arrestees.

« Police charged baton on the protestors, as they became violent and started damaging vehicles. We did it only to maintain law and order in the city, » the official said.

The trouble first erupted at about 7:00am when BNP chief whip Joynal Abedin Faroque led a procession of some 25 opposition lawmakers from Farmgate to the parliament building.

The procession was intercepted by the riot police in front of the parliament, leading to an altercation that later turned into a tussle, as policemen stormed into the gathering and thrashed the opposition whip.

Injured in the head, Faroque was first taken to the residence of the party’s lawmaker Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papiya at the nearby NAM flat, and later was shifted to United Hospitals.

Witnesses said Faroque picked up an altercation with DMP additional deputy commissioner Harun-or-Rashid, which resulted in a scuffle, and later the BNP leader was beaten.

The BNP headquarters at Naya Paltan was cordoned off since the early hours, as the BNP-led alliance started enforcing the hartal from 6:00am, demanding reinstatement of the caretaker government system and an end to public sufferings.

The party’s acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir along with other leaders and supporters gathered outside their party headquarters after dawn, but police did not allow them to enter the office or stage processions.

The law-enforcers picked up several activists of BNP from the area. Besides, former lawmaker and president of the Gulshan unit of Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal Noor-e-Ara Safa and five others were picked up from the city’s Mohakhali area. Policemen also detained eight Jamaat activists after a clash at Mirpur in the morning.

Earlier, during the hartal hours Wednesday the pro-hartal activists could not come to the streets, as police foiled their repeated moves at various points in the capital. Read more…