Dhaka: Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia was today charged by the police with ‘instigation' of the fire-bombing of a bus that left 7 people dead amid escalating political crisis in the country that has claimed 60 lives within a month.
At least seven passengers, including two women, were charred to death yesterday when suspected opposition activists hurled petrol bombs on a packed bus in eastern Bangladesh, the worst attack during the current spate of political unrest. “She has been named as an instigator of the attack,” district police Chief Tutul Chakrabarty.
Former Comilla MP and central Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher has been also accused in the case, Charkavarty was quoted as saying by bdnews. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Zia has already been named as the instigator in two incidents of arsons, including the one at Dhaka's Jatrabarhi, which left one dead and 30 others injured.
A total of 56 BNP and Jamaat activist have been accused in both cases while another 15 to 20 unidentified people have also been charged, police officer Uttam Chakravarty said. Meanwhile, two protesters were gunned down in a predawn encounter at the capital's Jatrabari area and police said they detained another such person for exploding a bomb at Shahjahanpur area in the city, Elite anticrime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said.
“He (third saboteur) is now being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital under our custody,” a policeman said. RAB officials meanwhile said the two saboteurs were killed instantly as the members of the elite anti-crime unit were forced to use gunshots after a patrol car of their came under “petrol bomb attacks”.
“When the (RAB) patrol vehicle slowed down, a petrol bomb was lobbed first and as our personnel got off, the miscreant fired gunshots and we retaliated,” a RAB spokesman said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week asked law enforcement agencies to take “take any action to be deemed necessary” to keep the law and order situation under control and ensure public safety, saying, “I am giving you this much liberty to do it.”
But the latest casualties came after BNP extended their 72-hour nationwide shutdown for 36 more hours to end on Thursday evening.
The decision forced authorities to defer for the second time in a week a crucial countrywide public examination in which some 1.5 million children were set to appear on completion of their 10 years of schooling. The violence sparked by the non-stop nationwide blockade enforced by 69-year-old Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since January 6 has claimed at least 60 lives so far.
The law enforcement agencies have detained 2,500 suspected arsonists in the last 16 days and announced Tk 100,000 (USD 1,286) bounty on each person involved in the latest clash between Bangladesh's two main, long-feuding political factions.
The extended strike came as the BNP and its right-wing allies including fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami simultaneously enforced for the 29th consecutive day their nationwide transport blockade that they began coinciding with the 1st anniversary of the January 5, 2014 divisive polls, which it had boycotted.
The blockade sparked a violent unrest with suspected anti-government activists carrying out clandestine attacks with petrol bombs mostly targeting passenger buses and trucks particularly at nights.
According to media reports 10 others were killed in police gunshots as authorities warned the law enforcement agencies including paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) would handle the saboteurs with an “iron hand”. Legal experts said if police investigations found Zia's links to the attacks, the court could issue a warrant for her arrest.
According to reports tallied by major newspapers, the suspected blockaders in the past one month torched 906 vehicles and uprooted railway tracks in seven places forcing authorities to lower the speed limit of trains as precautions at the cost of schedules.
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DCCI) meanwhile came up with an updated estimate of economic losses caused by the unrest saying the businesses incurred a loss of worth Taka 68335.8 crore Taka.
Hasina, meanwhile, issued a tough note of warning against her archrival saying Khaleda would have to “suffer a lot” for spearheading the violent campaign to topple her government at the cost of innocent peoples' lives.
BNP was virtually in a state of disarray since it boycotted the January 5, 2014 elections but it waged a fierce campaign coinciding with the first anniversary of the divisive polls demanding a fresh inclusive midterm election. Hasina rejected the demand and asked Zia to wait until 2019 for the next scheduled polls and prepare her party for the elections “wining the peoples' heart”.
