Two persons were injured in crude bomb blasts in Katabon and Malibagh as violence erupted in different parts of the capital today on the eve of BNP-led 18-party opposition combine-sponsored 60-hour countrywide hartal (shutdown).
Unidentified miscreants also torched six vehicles including buses and exploded more cocktails at different parts of the Dhaka.
Police suspected that the pro-hartal activists unleashed the violence to create panic among commuters ahead of the shutdown scheduled to begin at 6:00am tomorrow.
The opposition combine called the fresh shutdown in a span of seven days to press home its demand for a non-party polls-time government to oversee the next general election.
INJURIES
An unidentified 35-year-old man sustained blast injuries after a crude bomb went off at Katabon intersection around 11:00am.
Shahbagh police rushed him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Police suspected that the man was carrying a bomb which went off suddenly.
Detail of the blast was not available immediately.
A surgery was being performed on him when the report was filed at 12:30pm.
Meanwhile, Abdul Motalib, 35, a rickshaw-puller, was injured as a homemade bomb exploded near Padma Cinema Hall in Malibagh around 3:00pm.
Motalib who was on his way to Badda sustained injuries on his head and throat in the blast.
He was undergoing treatment at the DMCH.
TORCHING
A group of unidentified people torched a bus in front of the T&T Colony in Motijheel, the commercial hub of the capital, around 10:30am, fire service official said.
On information, firefighters rushed to the spot and doused the fire.
Detail of the incident however could not be known immediately.
Unidentified miscreants also torched a bus in Gulistan around 2:40pm and set fire to another at Kataban around 3:20pm, fire service officials confirmed.
UNB adds: Criminals also set fire to three buses–one near BSTI office in Tejgaon around 11:45am, another in front of Abakash Hotel in Mohakhali around 2:00pm and a CNG-run three-wheelers at Malibagh Chowdhurypara about 1:55pm.
