Crude bombs were set off and many vehicles burned across the country during the opposition-sponsored daylong hartal on Tuesday.
The 18-party alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called the hartal after some homemade bombs exploded near their rally on Monday. Police later recovered 12 homemade bombs during a raid at the BNP headquarters in the city’s Naya Paltan.
The police also arrested about 200 opposition leaders and activists, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. However, many of the central leaders, including Mr. Alamgir, were let off after interrogation on Tuesday.
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Cases have been filed against 154 opposition activists, including chief whip Zainul Abedin Farroque and BNP joint secretaries general Rizvi Ahmed and Amanullah Aman, under the explosives act and the speedy trial tribunal act for the explosions and violence at Monday’s rally.
The court has set a March 20 hearing for the remand of the 154 opposition leaders and activists.
In the latest attack on Hindu minority, a temple was vandalised in Kaliganj upazila of Jhenidah on Tuesday. Law enforcers who rushed to the spot said some unidentified people broke into the temple at Angita cremation ground and vandalised idols.
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Temple priest Joygopal Chakrabarti and caretaker Sabita Chakrabarti said around 10,000 people from adjoining villages offered their prayers at the 250-year-old temple.