Saturday, May 04, 2024
A day after a clash and police action in Naya Paltan, a tense situation is prevailing in the area in Dhaka where traffic movement remained disrupted since Wednesday night.
No one is being allowed to enter the area without ID as police set up barricades at the Nightingale intersection in Bijoynagar and Fakirapool crossings. No vehicles were seen in front of the BNP office.
“BNP leaders threw crude bombs at police yesterday (Wednesday) in the area, and that BNP office is not safe, it is now a crime scene,” Biplob Kumar Sarkar, joint commissioner (operations) of DMP, told the media.
"No one is allowed to go in until our work is done," he added.
A huge number of law enforcers remained deployed in the area with armoured police vehicles.
No BNP leaders and activists have been seen at the party office since this morning, after Wednesday’s clash.
However, small groups of BNP activists were seen marching toward the office since Thursday morning and were later intercepted by police.
Police detained two people — Arshad, 25 and Ujjal, 20 — at the Nightingale intersection where some BNP supporters were staging demonstrations.
Most offices, shopping malls, and shops in the area were closed till 10am.
Locals said that they are panicked as a huge number of policemen are taking positions in the area. They were also facing difficulties in going to their respective destinations.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday claimed that two leaders of their party’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal were killed and over 100 others were injured in an attack by police when bullets were fired in front of their party’s Naya Paltan central office.
Besides, he said, around 600 BNP leaders and activists, including party's senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Dhaka south city unit convener Abdus Salam and north city unit convener Amanullah Aman, were arrested from the party office.
The DMP commissioner, meanwhile, said BNP men exploded crude bombs from their party office and for that the drive was carried out.
“We beefed up security by increasing the number of police. It was an official day, and they (BNP) didn’t take prior permission to hold the rally”, he said.
