UNB, Dhaka: A Shibir activist was shot dead in ‘gunfight’ with police in Sirajganj amid the countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Monday, enforced by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami for protesting the execution of death sentence of its leader and war criminal M Kamaruzzaman. The deceased was identified as Anisur Rahman Anis, 19, son of Jahangir Alam, resident of Goihatta village of Ullapara upazila of Sirajganj and an activist of the local unit of Islami Chhatra Shibir. Sirajganj Sadar Police Station officer-in-charge Habibul Islam said police Police fired at Shibir activists as they hurled crude bombs toward them in Dhanbandi area of Ullapara upazila around 12:30am, leaving Anis critically injured. Later he was rushed to Sadar Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries around 5:45am. However, no procession or picketing was seen in support of the hartal in the capital till filing of this report at 12pm. The presence of motorised vehicles was normal on the streets. A large number of policemen and members of Rapid Action Battalion remained deployed at important city points to fend off any trouble. In Chittagong, the pickets set three vehicles afire at Sholoshahar Mayor Goli in Pnachlaish area in the city early in the morning. Pickets also set a bus afire after vandalizing it at bus-stand area of Gazipur city around 6:30am. In a statement on Saturday, Jamaat acting ameer Moqbul Ahmed announced the shutdown programme, minutes after war criminal Kamaruzzaman was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail. Ambulances, hospital vehicles and fire service and dead-body carrying ones will remain out of the purview of the shutdown programme, the statement reads. M Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was executed around 10:30pm on Saturday at Dhaka Central Jail for crimes against humanity he had committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
