5 vehicles torched

Miscreants set fire to at least five vehicles in Dhaka, Panchagarh and Moulvibazar today, the fourth consecutive day of the 120-hour countrywide hartal enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance.

In Dhaka, miscreants torched a bus at Jurine around 6:40pm, while a private car was torched at Golapbagh near Jatrabari around 7pm. None was hurt in the attacks, said Fire Service and Civil Defense.

In Panchagarh, a bus and a truck were torched which injured four people as they were rushing to get down from the vehicles.

A group of miscreants torched the bus of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation along with a truck which were parked at a field in Bokdurjhula Bazar area of Boda upazila of the district around 4:00am, informed Mohammad Moznur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Boda police station.

The miscreants vandalised and set afire the bus while the driver Al-Amin, 35, and helper Lalon, 30, were still sleeping in the bus, reports our Thakurgaon correspondent.

The truck driver Sumon, 24, and owner of the truck Shawkat, 48, were also asleep inside the truck, during the attack.

Locals doused the fire before fire fighters arrived there, said Abdul Malek, inspector of Panchagarh fire service.

Police are conducting drives to nab the criminals, the OC said.

In Moulvibazar, miscreants set fire to a bus in Bhobanigaon bus stand area of Juri Upazila around 3:30am with no report of any casualty in the incident, reports our Moulvibazar correspondent.

On information, a fire fighting unit rushed to the spot and doused the blaze.

A case has been filed with the local police station in this connection.

In Rajshahi, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members recovered a bag containing 15 crude bombs at Kharkhari Bypass road of the city, Golam Sarwar, assistant superintendent of police of Rab’s media wing, told our Rajshahi correspondent.

A patrol team of Rab found four to five youths gathering on the road around 5:30am.

Seeing the elite force, the youths fled from the scene leaving a containing 15 crude bombs.

The BNP-led 20-party alliance called a 72-hour nationwide hartal from Sunday, which has been extended till 6:00am Friday, demanding fresh national polls under a non-party administration and protesting the killing of opposition leaders and activists in the name of crossfire and for the filing of false cases against alliance leaders.

So far, 81 people have been killed in the political violence that started in the beginning of this year with BNP-led 20-party’s nationwide blockade called from January 6.