Dhaka: BNP-led 18-party alliance enforces a dawn-to-dusk countrywide hartal on Tuesday in protest against killing of three people and attacks on opposition activists by ruling party cadres and policemen during road blockade programme on Sunday.

The alliance-enforced the shutdown started at 6:00am which will continue till 6:00 pm across the country protesting the arrest and filing of false cases against the opposition leaders and activists and also to press for restoration of the caretaker government.

Most shops and all educational institutions remained closed and traffic was disrupted during the hartal hours. But the government offices remain open as usual though presence was thin.

Almost all modes of transport stayed off the streets fearing vandalism though rickshaws and some CNG-run auto-rickshaws were plying the capital streets.

BNP acting secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who was arrested Monday evening ahead of the strike, announced the shutdown programme after a meeting of BNP standing committee members held at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office on Sunday night. 

BNP sources said plainclothes police encircled the BNP leader as he came out of the BNP’s Nayapaltan central office at about 6:00pm to go to BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office to attend a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O Blake.

After a brawl for a while, the members of the DB police dragged him into a microbus and took him to their office.

In a statement, Khaleda also demanded unconditional release of Fakhrul and withdrawal of the ‘false’ cases filed against him.

In pre-hartal orgy of arson and violence, opposition elements torched at least 16 vehicles at different parts of the capital city and Gazipur on Monday night, but no one was reported injured in those arson attacks and torching of vehicles.

Ten vehicles, including eight buses, a three-wheeler and a private car were set ablaze at different parts in the capital here Monday evening.

Main opposition BNP-led 18-party alliance activists were blamed for setting fire to eight passenger buses, a three-wheeler leguna and a private car at different places in the city as they tried to spread panic among the city dwellers ahead of their countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Tuesday.

The vehicles were set ablaze at Uttara, Shibari in Gazipur, Mirpur Zoo Road, Abdullahpur in Tongi, Azampur, Kawranbazar, Rayshaheb Bazar, Farmgate and Technical at Darussalam between 7:00pm to 10:00 pm.

Fire Service Control Room sources said that the miscreants set fire to a private car near the house building at Uttara at about 7:00pm.

They also set fire to eight passenger buses at Shibbari in Gazipur, Mirpur zoo road, Abdullahpur in Tongi, Azampur, Uttara police station, Kawranbazar, Farmgate and Technical area under Darussalam.

The miscreants also set fire to a three-wheeler 'Leguna' at Rayshaheb Bazar at about 8:00 pm. Some unidentified youth torched a pick up van near Babu Bazar Bridge in the old part of the capital at about 8:15pm that left the driver burnt. 

Another bus was set on fire at about 8:00 at Green Road-Panthopath crossing, in front of the Square Hospital, said a police officer of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station.

Over a hundred vehicles were also damaged across the country during the road blockade on Sunday.

Though a large number of law enforcement agencies were deployed in all strategic points in the capital, but they have failed to prevent the torching of vehicles and vandalism despite filing of 39 cases against several thousand opposition activists, including Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, for vandalism during road blockade programme.

The opposition activists went berserk following arrest of Mirza Fakhrul in the evening while the BNP high-ups threatened non-stop hartal if Fakhrul was not freed immediately.  

The BNP-led 18-party alliance on Monday suspended its agitation programme scheduled to be held in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office in the afternoon due to obstruction by police before arrest of Mirza Fakhrul who was earlier accused in several cases of vandalism filed on Sunday night and Monday.

"We had sought permission from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police for our programme but they didn’t permit us. Police have taken away loudspeakers and the rented trucks for erecting the stage,” BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told an emergency press conference at the BNP office just before his arrest.

Talking to reporters, Fakhrul said they postponed the Nayaplatan rally as part of their political strategy to make Tuesday’s dawn-to-dusk hartal a success.

As part of the government strategy to tame the opposition movement, at least 39 cases were filed against several thousand leaders and activists of the 18-party alliance, including BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, on Sunday night with different police stations in the capital city for their alleged involvement in violence during the road blockade. 

An arrest panic gripped the Nayapaltan area after the filing of the fresh cases.  Huge police, including plainclothes ones, are paroling the area, forcing many BNP senior leaders to take shelter in its central office.

BNP leaders claimed that many opposition activists were arrested from the different parts of the city.

The 18-party alliance enforced the 6:00am-to-2:00pm road blockade across the country on Sunday to press home their various demands, including restoration of the caretaker government to oversee the next general election, which was marked by sporadic clashes, arson attacks and arrests.

Addressing a post-blockade press briefing, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said their eight-hour nationwide road blockade programme was completely successful.

He also claimed that their four activists were killed and 440 arrested, including 225 in the capital. Over 600 people were also injured by police and BCL men across the country, he said.

Ends/AMA/11/12/12