Staff Reporter :Two students of Eden Mohila College received burn injuries in fresh petrol bomb attack in the city during the BNP-led 20 party alliance’s countrywide blockade on Sunday. The incident took place around 1:45pm when the students of the college were returning to their home at Mirpur after attending examinations.The injured were identified as Sathi Akter, 19 and Sharmin Akter Juthi, 21 Their friend Maimuna Akter, 20. who was accompanying them, suffered injury while trying to get out of the burning bus.All of them are first year students of Islamic Studies Department of the college.Sources said miscreants set fire to the bus of ‘Bikalpa Paribahan’ by hurling a petrol bomb near the Sangshad Bhaban complex in the capital’s Monipuripara area around 1:45 pm, leaving the three girl passengers of the bus injured. The injured were soon rushed to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Being informed, a firefighting unit rushed to the spot and doused the fire.Residential Surgeon of DMCH emergency unit Dr Partha Shankar Paul said: “Sharmin sustained 8 percent injury in her both legs while Sathi sustained 3 percent burnt injury. Both are now under supervision of the doctors in the burn unit.”Maimuna, who got injured while jumping out from the burning bus is now undergoing treatment at Causality Department of the hospital.Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid and NHRC Chairman Mizanur Rahman visited DMCH burn unit around 4pm and consoled the family members present there. Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury also visited the burn victims around 5:15pm. In another incident, a truck helper was brunt to death after miscreants hurled petrol bombs at his vehicle on Dhaka-Barisal highway at Uzirpur upazila of Barisal in the morning.The victim was identified as Sohag (18) of Nagarkanda upazila under Faridpur district.Our Barisal Correspondent quoting Officer in-charge of Uzirpur Police Station Nurul Islam, said, driver of the Faridpur-bound truck lost control over the steering and fell into a roadside ditch after pickets hurled petrol bombs at the vehicle around 6am on Sunday.The truck caught fire due to a petrol bomb thrown by the suspected blockaders at a place between Bamrail and Shanuhar.Driver Ripon managed to come out of the truck. Helper Sohag however was burnt to death trapped inside the vehicle. Later, the charred body of Sohag was recovered from inside the vehicle, he added.Ripon, who sustained mild burn injuries during the attack, was admitted to Faridpur General Hospital.Meanwhile, the 36-hour hartal in Rajshahi Division was reportedly marked with attack on lawmen with crude bombs and street processions.In Rajshahi, Shibir activists brought out a brisk procession and burned car tyres on the road before the Rajshahi Government College around 8:00am. The activists blasted a crude bomb targeting a vehicle of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on duty there.Iftekhar Alam, Assistant Police Commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, confirmed the incident and said no one was hurt in the explosion.No top or mid-level BNP leaders were seen on the streets during the demonstrating in support of the hartal, our Rajshahi Correspondent reports.In Chapainawabganj, where the BNP man was killed in a “shootout” with RAB, brisk processions of Shibirmen and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of BNP, were reported from Shantirmore and Boro Indira intersection areas yesterday morning.The alliance is observing a countrywide nonstop blockade since January 5, protesting confinement of its Chief Khaleda Zia to her Gulshan office in Dhaka.
