Stray incidents of violence mark Kushtia hartal
Stray incidents of violence marked the dawn-to-dusk hartal enforced by Kushtia BNP unit yesterday to protest a court order in the district.
Pickets vandalised a truck, ransacked six shops and torched two auto-rickshaws in the town, said Joynal Abedin, additional superintendent of police.
A mobile court conducted by Executive Magistrate Abul Kalam jailed two activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) for one month for vandalising the truck at Mazampur around 11:00am.
The convicts are Tingku Ali and Ashraf Islam, said the magistrate.
Police arrested them from Mazampur Gate red-handed and called the mobile court, said Abedin.
The pro-hartal activists damaged two shops at Mazampur and four on NS Road in the town for keeping those opened. They also torched two auto-rickshaws on NS Road.
Chases and counter-chases took place between police and pickets in Mazampur and NS Road areas.
No long-distance bus left or entered the district since beginning of the hartal at 6:00am.
All the markets and educational institutions in the district remained closed.
Additional police were deployed in the town to avert untoward incidents.
The District BNP enforced the hartal to protest a lower court decision that rejected the bail petitions of 13 party leaders in a case filed against them.
Police filed the case against 500 BNP leaders and activists following a clash with the party men on December 10 last year. The BNP men were accused of assaulting police and obstructing them from performing duties.
The chief judicial magistrate's court of Kushtia on Monday sent the 13 district unit leaders, including its president Syed Mehedi Ahmed Rumi and general secretary Shohrab Uddin to jail when they sought permanent bail.
Earlier the HC on December 13 granted six leaders and activists ad-interim bail and asked them to appear before the lower court by January 21. A lower court granted bail to other BNP men till January 20.
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