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BGB personnel have been deployed in Dhaka’s Kakrail area as BNP activists clashed with police. Fire service units have been dispatched to the Institute of Diploma Engineers after a fire was reported.
Reports of violence and vandalism are emerging from Kakrail. Brickbats, spent shotgun casings, and tree branches litter the ground, reports bdnews24.com.
Nuruzzaman, a police constable providing security at the residence of the chief justice, said, “ The door and window of the building and the glass protecting the chief justice’s nameplate have been vandalised.”
A police box in front of the Kakrail church has been set on fire.
A fire was reported inside the IDB building at 1:55 pm, said Azad, an operator at the Fire Service Control Room. A firefighting unit from Bangabazar was deployed to the area.
Seven pickup trucks of BGB personnel were seen in the Kakrail area around 2:25 pm. They got off and began marching towards Naya Paltan. Explosions were heard from the Naya Paltan area at the time.
Police were seen lobbing tear gas and sound grenades near Kakrail. Activists were seen armed with sticks. The rally seemed to be suspended for the moment, but BNP leaders were gathered on the stage with activists surrounding them and chanting slogans. Tear gas smoke was rising from the area.
Fires were seen at several spots near traffic police boxes at the Kakrail intersection around 1:15 pm. A vehicle parked near IDB was torched.
Police and the fire service are working to control the fires.
A bdnews24.com reporter saw at least three vehicles of BGB personnel on patrol following the start of the clashes.
Both sides of the road near Willes Little Flower School had turned into a battlefield, according to bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent Golam Mortuja. Several injured in the violence have been taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
JAMAAT ACTIVIST INJURED BY POLICE FIRE
A Jamaat activist named Naib Ali Sheikh, 60, was injured by police fire around 12:30 pm.
Police opened fire as Jamaat activists were breaching the barricades in Arambagh, said Sheikh, who identified himself as a member of the party. He said a bullet hit him on his left leg.
Shohag, a passerby, said he saw Sheikh lying bleeding on the road and brought him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 1:15 pm.
An Essential Drugs employee – 50-year-old BM Raju Kamal – was also injured near the Kakrail Mosque intersection.
Kamal said he set off on a vehicle from the Satrasta intersection to Gulistan when the vehicle was attacked near the mosque around 12:30 pm.
Two people brought to DMCH are receiving treatment in the emergency department, according to Inspector Bachchu Mia of the hospital’s police outpost.Doctors had attended to four people, including a Jamaat activist, as of 1:30 pm, he said.