2 buses torched in Gulistan, Agargaon

Staff Reporter :
At least two passengers’ buses were set on fire in the city’s Gulistan and Agargaon areas on Saturday evening, ahead of the 48-hour countrywide hartal called by BNP to protest against the announcement of the national polls schedule by the Election Commission on November 15.

In Gulistan, unidentified miscreants set fire on a passenger bus of Komol Paribahan in the capital’s Gulistan on Saturday evening.

The attack on the “Komol Paribahan” bus in front of Gulistan Toll Plaza was reported around 7:48pm on Saturday, confirmed Talha Bin Zashim, station officer of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.

Responding to the call, two firefighting units from Siddique Bazar Fire Station rushed to the spot to douse the fire, he said.

Earlier, unidentified miscreants set fire on a bus of Bihango Paribahan in Taltola area of the capital’s Kafrul on Saturday evening.

Ershad Hossain, duty officer of control room at Fire Service and Civil Defence, said being informed fire service men reached there around 6:40pm.

However, locals extinguished the blaze before fire engines reached the spot. Iftekhar Mahmood, a resident of Mirpur who was on his way home, told the media that the bus was torched in front of the BAF Museum, just opposite to Taltola market in Agargaon.

It is mentioned that after the fifth spell of countrywide blockade ended on Thursday, the BNP, Jamaat, and like-minded opposition parties called for the 48-hour hartal begining on Sunday morning, rejecting the poll schedule.

The endless shutdown, blockade and hartal is meant to mount pressure on the government to step down, hand over power to a neutral government, and release all the arrested BNP leaders and activists, including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.