UNB, Dhaka :
The countrywide 48-hour hartal, enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami protesting its ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami’s death sentence for his crimes during the Liberation War, is progressing amid poor response on Sunday.
The second-phase shutdown that began at 6am yesterday will end at 6am on Tuesday.
There was no report of any major incident of violence on Sunday.
In the capital, Jamaat-Shibir men brought out a procession at Paikpra in Mirpur at around 6:40 am.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in separate drives arrested a man and recovered 57 crude bombs, eight hand bombs, gunpowder and bomb-making materials from Adabar and Hazaribagh areas of the capital ahead of the shutdown.
In Gazipur, the hartal supporters brought out separate processions on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway at Chandana intersection in the morning.
Jamaat-Shibir men threw brick chips targeting vehicles, damaging windowpanes of some of them. They also blasted a crude bomb in Joydevpur rail gate area.
In Narayanganj, at least 10 people were injured, including one with bullets, in a clash between police and Jamaat-Shibir activists at Fatulla in Sadar upazila in the morning.
Hartal supporters also vandalised 10 vehicles on the Dhaka-Sylhet and the Dhaka-Chittagong highways at Siddhirganj. In Sylhet, a group of Jamaat-Shibir men put up barricade on the Choukidighi Road by placing logs and torching tyre. At one stage, pickets blasted four crude bombs.
They also blocked the Naya Sarak by setting fire in the morning. In Pabna, police arrested 45 people, including 15 activists of Jamaat-Shibir from different parts of the district during the shutdown.
Shibir men also set fire to a bus during the hartal hours on Sunday.
In Bogra, pickets vandalised 10 battery-driven easy bikes at Charmatha in the town. Police arrested five suspected pickets from different places in the town during the strike.
In Comilla, police arrested 10 Jamaat-Shibir activists from different parts of the district on Saturday night, ahead of hartal.
Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) remained deployed in different parts of the country, including the capital to fend off any untoward incident during the hartal.
The first phase 24-hour hartal enforced by Jamaat ended on Friday morning amid poor response.
Hours after the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 condemned Jamaat ameer Nizami to death for crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War on Wednesday, the Islamic party announced the 72-hour staggered nationwide shutdown programme.
