UNB, Chattogram :
A dawn-to-dusk hartal is underway in Chattogram amid the countrywide 48-hour blockade enforced by BNP, Jamaat and likeminded opposition parties to realise their one-point demand.
Chittagong city, north and south district BNP called for the hartal to protest the arrest of BNP standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury from Gulshan in Dhaka.
Jamaat-e-Islami also expressed their support for the hartal.
Meanwhile, a passenger bus was set on fire by pickets in the Katghar area of Patenga police station in the early hours of the hartal.
Confirming the incident, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Patenga Police Station Aftab Hossain said, “The bus was parked there to pick up the garment workers. The driver parked the bus on the side of the road and went to a mosque to offer Fajr prayers. ”
“A group of people arrived at the spot with CNG-run auto-rickshaws,” he said, adding, “They poured petrol on the bus and set it on fire in front of some garment workers.”
Police doused the fire within 20 minutes, said OC Aftab Hossain.
However, life in Chattogram remained almost normal despite BNP’s hartal and 48-hour blockade, reports UNB’s Chattogram correspondent.
Although vehicular movement remained normal in the city, no long-route vehicles left the city due to the blockade.
Chattogram Port Authority said that the regular operations (loading and unloading of goods) at Chittagong Port remained normal since morning.
BNP leaders and activists took out processions in different parts of the city and district in support of the hartal and blockade.
A protest rally was held in the city’s Sholoshahar area in support of the hartal.
In support of the hartal, Jubo Dal brought out a procession in the Chandgaon area of the city under the leadership of Senior Joint General Secretary of City Jubo Dal Mosharraf Hossain.
Besides, rallies were organised in support of the 48-hour nationwide blockade and dawn-to-dusk hartal in the city’s Pahartoli Policebit/Railgate area.
A large number of law enforcers were deployed at multiple intersections in the city to deal with any kind of untoward situation during the hartal and 48-hour blockade.
Several top leaders of BNP including Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee members Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Mirza Abbas, and vice chairman Barrister Shahjahan Omar have been arrested since the October 28 violence that killed a police constable and a political activist.
