Police in action during the clash. Photo: Star At least 13 policemen and nine others were injured in two arson attacks in the capital last night. Six of them, including a cop, sustained burn injuries. According to police, miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at a bus carrying around 30 policemen near Matsya Bhaban intersection around 8:15pm. "The bus was returning to Rajarbagh Police Lines from Shahbag
h. When it was crossing the bend in front of Ramna Chinese Restaurant, a petrol bomb flew in through a window behind the driver. The seats instantly caught fire. The driver panicked and went over the central reservation and fell on its side," Constable Bodiar Rahman, who received injuries from the crash, told The Daily Star at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Law enforcers remove bricks and brick chunks from the second bypass of Bogra town in Matidali area after a clash between the police and blockade supporters yesterday. Photo: Star Robbed Of Livelihood: In desperation, Ratan Mia throws a fist full of sand into the burning truck at Jhopgari in Bogra yesterday. He along with law enforcers and locals, who arrived at the scene later on, made several attempts to save the vehicle Ratan himself owns. It was what put food on his table. Unable to save it. Photo: star Driver Morshed received minor burns and Sub-Inspector Azad and constables Shamim, Likhon, Bakhtiar and Shipon were hurt while escaping, according to DMCH sources. With head-injury, Shamim was later shifted to Square Hospital. Assistant Commissioner Shiblee Noman of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said seven more injured policemen were taking treatment at Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital. Visiting the injured at the DMCH late last night, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said not just the attackers but those who are giving them orders will also be brought to book. Advertisement In another incident, five passengers were burnt and four more injured after blockaders torched a bus in Mohammadpur. Ratan just sits on the highway and sobs, right. Allegedly blockade supporters had scattered a flammable powder on his truck and set the vehicle on fire. Photo: Star Witnesses said two petrol bombs were hurled at the bus in Beribadh area around 9:15pm. Abu Taher, 80, and his son Abu Bakar, Nurjahan, Arman and Belal suffered four to 25 percent burns, said DMCH doctors. Nurjahan's daughter Ritu and son Rifat and Taher's other son Sujan were injured in the incident. Two more people received burn injuries and more than 34kg of gunpowder was seized on the 12th day of the nonstop blockade enforced by the BNP-led alliance. Commuters' sufferings continued as only a handful of long-route buses operated and train schedules went haywire, thanks to the recent acts of sabotage by blockaders. While life across the country has already been crippled by the ongoing blockade, the 20-party combine have called hartals for today in Rajshahi and Barisal divisions, Gaibandha, Noakhali, Pirojpur and Comilla districts, and in three upazilas of Khulna. The shutdowns were called to protest the confinement of BNP chief Khaleda Zia and government actions against the leaders and activists of the alliance. A bus which alleged pickets torched at Gabtoli Bus Terminal in the capital yesterday. Firemen are seen pumping water into the bus to stop the smoldering. Photo: Banglar Chokh Sultana Diba, 23, an MA student of Jagannath University in Dhaka, sustained burns after blockaders set fire to the Jatrabari-bound bus she was travelling in from Comilla in the capital's Rayerbagh area around 9:45am, said Abani Sankar Kar, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari Police Station. Diba received primary treatment at Dhaka National Medical College and Hospital. Also in the capital, a minibus was set ablaze in Mirpur around 7:30am and another at Technical intersection around 4:30pm, but none was reported hurt, according to fire service officials. Locals caught a youth named Angur while he was setting fire to a bus at Technical intersection and gave him a beating yesterday evening before handing him to law enforcers, police said. Meanwhile, police shot a Mirpur Bangla College student in the right leg in Gulistan after picking him up from his Mirpur home last night on charges of picketing. But victim Akram Hossain told the press at the DMCH that he had not been involved in any such activity. In Chittagong, a rickshaw puller was burnt when miscreants hurled a petrol bomb at his rickshaw in Akber Shah area on Friday night, said Officer-in-Charge Abdul Majid of Akber Shah Police Station. Victim Fazlur Rahman, 52, was admitted to the Burn Unit of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH). In Chapainawabganj, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) seized 33kg of gunpowder from a village bordering India. A team of the paramilitary force chased two persons in Johorpurtak area, some 500 yards from the border, when they were crossing into the Bangladesh side around 8:00am yesterday, said Lt Col Bazlul Haque, commanding officer of BGB Battalion-9. At one stage, the duo fled the scene leaving four packets of gunpowder they had smuggled in from India allegedly for making bombs to carry out subversive activities, he claimed. Also in the district, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested three Jamaat-Shibir men with 1.05kg of gunpowder from Baroghoria area of Sadar upazila. The arrestees were Imran Ali, 20, president of Chapainawabganj town's Ward-13 unit of Islami Chhatra Shibir, Shibir activist Mohammad Masum, 21, and Jamaat activist Shamsul Haque, 44, said Major Kamruzzaman, commander of Chapainawabganj camp of Rab-5. In Bogra, at least 14 blockade supporters were detained from Matidali area yesterday morning, following a clash with police. Police and witnesses said when 20-party men were leaving after a meeting there, a crude bomb was blasted, prompting police to lob tear shells and rubber bullets to disperse them. On Friday night, police picked up around 40 people from different areas of the district on charges of subversive activities during the anti-government programmes since January 5. Elsewhere, law enforcers detained 38 BNP-Jamaat activists in Satkhira, 18 in Rangpur, nine in Chittagong, three in Jhalakathi and nine in Bhola.
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