Islami Chhatra Shibir President Delwar Hossain was arrested yesterday in the capital’s Shyamoli for alleged involvement in recent violence and attacks on police. Countrywide violence by Shibir followed the arrest. The student wing of Jamaat also announced a string of programmes for two days, including a countrywide daylong hartal for tomorrow. Hours after the hartal declaration by Shibir, the BNP-led opposition called a hartal for the same day but on different issues. Nazrul Islam Mollah, deputy commissioner of the Detective Branch of police, told The ABC News Reports that acting on a tip-off, a DB team picked up Delwar from his sister’s house around 4:15pm. “The Shibir leader was involved in almost all the recent acts of violence, such as arson, vandalism, bombing and attacks on police. “We had long been looking for him but he was on the run,” Nazrul said. It is Delwar’s second term as the Shibir president. Earlier, he was president of Shibir’s Rajshahi University unit.
Meanwhile, Abdul Zabbar, secretary general of the central committee of Shibir, in a press statement condemned and protested the arrest. Signed by the committee’s cultural secretary Yasin Arafat, the statement declared the two-day programme, according to which the party will stage countrywide protests today. It threatened the government with tougher movements unless the Shibir chief is freed. Meanwhile, Jamaat-Shibir leaders and activists vandalised and torched vehicles in different parts of the country. They set fire to eight vehicles in the capital last night at Gulshan, Amtuail, Rayerbagh, West Shewrapara, Senpara in Mirpur, Dhakeshwari Mandir, fire service officials said. No casualty was reported. Shibir men vandalised seven to eight vehicles, including passenger buses, at Mohipal and torched two vehicles at Mirsharai point on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway yesterday. They also set fire to a truck, said police and witnesses. Police detained an activist in connection with the torching of the vehicles, said Iftekher Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Mirsharai Police Station. In Jhenidah, Jamaat-Shibir activists blocked the Dhaka-Khulna highway near Bejpara bus station at Kaliganj upazila by felling at least 100 trees. The traffic movement was disrupted for about an hour. Shibir activists torched a truck on Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj bypass highway around 11:00pm and barricaded the highway, reported our Rajshahi correspondent. Around 300 Shibir activists staged a demonstration on Rajshahi University campus, blasted seven to eight cocktails and fired blank shots around 8:30pm, reported our staff correspondent from Rajshahi. They also torched two CNG-run auto-rickshaws at Auktroy intersection in the city and exploded three to four cocktails. HARTAL CALLED BY BNP-JAMAAT The BNP-Jamaat-led 18-party opposition called a daylong countrywide shutdown for tomorrow, protesting Friday’s killings in Chapainawabganj and Sirajganj and arrest of BNP-leaders on March 11. They also demanded restoration of the caretaker system and that the Awami League-led grand alliance quite power for “its failure to run the country”. The opposition alliance came up with the decision in the middle of a meeting of the 18-party’s top leaders with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the chair at her Gulshan office last night. The 18-party leaders also decided to hold a meeting in front of the BNP’s Naya Paltan office in the capital on April 10 when Khaleda will address the gathering as chief guest, BNP spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters, emerging from the meeting. Meeting sources said the opposition alliance decided to extend its support to Hefajat-e Islam-sponsored April 6 long march towards the capital. “And if the government puts any obstacle in the long march, the 18-party alliance will extend its full support to hartal called by Hefajat-e Islam for an indefinite period,” said Abdul Mobin, chief of the Islamic Party, a partner in the alliance. There is a possibility that nonstop hartal will be enforced after April 10 if the government puts any obstacle in the 18-party’s rally.
