At least 60 people were injured as activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student organisation Islami Chhatra Sibir clashed with the police on Thursday when the activists brought out processions in the capital and elsewhere
in the country.
Jamaat and Shibir activists clashed with the police at Mohakhali and Motijheel in Dhaka and at Sonadighi in Rajshahi, during processions pressing for the release of their leaders.
Witnesses said that Shibir activists had brought out a procession near the Mohakhali flyover about 10:00am and tried to block the road.
When the police stopped them, the activists chased the law enforcers, who chased the Shibir activists back. The police fired teargas shells, exploded sound grenades and the Shibir activists pelted the police with stones. At least 10 people were injured.
Banani police subinspector Jahangir Alam said that they had arrested Shibir activist Mominur Rahman, 18, at the procession.
Shibir activists also brought out a procession about 10:30am in the Ittefaq crossing and left the place when the police chased them, Motijheel police duty officer Abdul Hossain said.
In Rajshahi, at least 50 people, including journalists and cops, were injured in a clash between Jamaat-Shibir activists and the police at Sonadighi on Thursday afternoon.
Several hundred Jamaat and Shibir activists brought out a procession about 2:30pm and when the police stopped them, they exploded a number of crude bombs and pelted the police with stones, witnesses said.
The police and activists chased each other. Police deployment was reinforced and they fired rubber bullets and teargas shells to disperse the protesters, the police said.
The acting Rajshahi Metropolitan Police commissioner Monir-uz-Zaman said that they arrested 25 Shibir activists for attacking the police. Two cases were filed against the Shibir activists.
Chapainawabganj unit Jamaat-e-Islami leaders called an eight-hour general strike in the district for Saturday to protest at the alleged police attack on their procession at Malibagh in Dhaka on Wednesday.