Shawdesh desk:

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police have filed at least 13 cases against several hundred leaders and activists of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party following clashes and attacks during Saturday’s pre-scheduled sit-in programme of the party at the entry points of the capital Dhaka.

The police said that they had foiled the political programmes at five points, as those were not permitted.

While BNP faced obstruction in holding programmes, the supporters of the ruling Awami League, whose three affiliated bodies announced counter-programmes around the same time at the same place, paraded down the streets with sticks, iron rods, and hockey sticks almost unchallenged.

DMP spokesperson and deputy commissioner Faruk Hossain said that 149 BNP activists were arrested in the cases filed over the incidents.

Around 7:30pm on Sunday, DMP’s media and public relations division confirmed that 13 cases had been filed with nine police stations in Dhaka against 628 BNP leaders and activists and scores of unnamed people.

The police officials filed one case each with Kadamtali, Darussalam, Demra, Sutrapur, Bangshal, and Airport police stations, two cases each with Jatrabari and Uttara Paschim, and three cases with Uttara Purba police stations.

Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, however, told reporters in the secretariat that at least 700 people were arrested in connection with clashes with police, violence, and arson attacks during the BNP’s sit-in programme.

‘There are CCTVs everywhere in the capital, and we are taking support from those. If the police fail to arrest the attackers, people will catch them and bring them before the police. We are not sparing anyone,’ he said.

Abdus Sattar Patwary, member (attached office) at the BNP central executive committee, said that at least 200 of their leaders and activists were arrested and 600 others were injured by police rubber bullets and attacks by the ruling party people.

The injured include standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and central leader Amanullah Aman.

Darussalam police station sub-inspector Asibur Rahman Tusher in the First Information Report of a case he filed claimed that when the police team reached Khaleque city at about 11:30am the supporters of BNP leader Amanullah Aman pelted stones at the police.

Video footage and witness accounts, however, contradict the police narrative.

The footage showed that police in plainclothes and uniforms arrested opposition activists who took positions with Amanullah near Khaleque City.

Such arrests continued until around 11:30am on Saturday, when ruling party supporters chanted slogans against BNP leaders.

As soon as senior police officials, led by DMP’s joint commissioner Liton Kumar Saha, appeared on the scene, the police officers, including Mirpur division deputy commissioner Mollah Jashim Uddin, Pallabi zone additional commissioner Nazmul Hasan Firoz, and Darussalam police station officer-in-charge Sheikh Abul Bashar, dragged Aman and his fellow politicians to a police vehicle and rushed Aman to a public hospital.

Asked about contradictions in the case statement and video evidence, Asibur declined to comment.

On Saturday, the main opposition and like-minded organisations’ sit-ins at other entry points to the capital were marked by attacks by police, which triggered clashes between law enforcers and the BNP, arrests, vandalism, and arson attacks on nearly two dozen vehicles.

The ruling Awami League activists made showdowns on the streets as they brought out processions carrying sticks and rods in the presence of police in a move to counter the opposition’s street programmes pressing for the government’s resignation and a free and fair national election.

Clashes and attacks took place at Matuail, Dholaikhal, Gabtali, Uttara, Shyamoli, and some other points in the capital.

BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Roy and central leader Amanullah Aman were briefly detained during the sit-in programme while scores of opposition activists were injured.

Gayeshwar was beaten and thrown on the street at Dholaikhal in the morning. He was seen bleeding in the face before being taken to a police van.

The senior BNP leader was then taken to the Detective Branch office and later released in the afternoon as police dropped him off at his home.

Some photos and videos of Gayeshwar later circulated on social media.

Gayeshwar on Sunday said he did not eat the food arranged by the Police Detective at its office.

In response to DB chief Harun-or-Rashid’s request and to maintain courtesy, he ate vegetables, a piece of fish, and rice from the food brought from the police officer’s house, he said.

Terming the circulation of the photos and videos of eating in the DB office as a ‘mean attitude’, Gayeshwar said that no temptation from the government can buy him.

Aman was taken into custody after the sit-in at Gabtali in the morning.

Later, a delegation led by the prime minister’s assistant private secretary-2 Gazi Hafizur Rahman Liku, visited Aman with fruits at the National Heart Institute, where he was taking treatment.

After leaving the hospital in the afternoon, Aman said on Facebook Live that he was put to sleep with medication while he was in the hospital with injuries.

He said that he could not understand who came to see him at that time and left a basket of fruits there.

The BNP leader said that the drama was staged to stab the ongoing movement in the back and to mislead the BNP leaders and activists.

Aman said that the movement would continue until the government fell and vowed not to step back even if he died.

He urged the leaders and activists not to be misled by the incident.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir earlier on Friday announced the sit-in programmes at Dhaka entry points from 11:00am to 4:00pm on Saturday.

Though the programme was scheduled to begin at 11:00am, large number of police personnel with riot cars, armoured vehicles, water cannons, and prison vans were deployed at Gabtali, Aminbazar, Siddhirganj, Signboard, the south end of Buriganga Bridge, Keraniganj, and Uttara areas.

The leaders and activists of the Awami League and its associate bodies have taken to the streets carrying sticks at different entry points since morning.

BNP leaders and activists started gathering at different entry points after 11:00am only to face police interception.

Police said they could not allow BNP’s programme since the party did not ask for police permission and the programme would cause public suffering.

The major points of the clashes were at Matuail on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway and Dholaikhal.

After 11:00am, the BNP leaders and activists gathered at Dholaikhal for a sit-in at Nayabazar.

Police tried to chase BNP supporters, triggering a clash between police and BNP activists, at about 11:30am, according to witnesses. The police charged BNP leaders and activists with batons and lobbed teargas shells at the protesters.

In response, protesters threw brickbats at the police.

The BNP leaders there claimed that dozens of their activists were injured in a police attack, and many were arrested there.

Around 1:15pm on Saturday, Abu Ahmed Mannafi, president of Dhaka city south AL, led a procession with many leaders and activists at the Dholaikhal crossing.

Huge numbers of police and the Ansar Guard Battalion were seen at the Dholaikhal crossing and its adjacent areas.

Matuail saw clashes and arson attacks throughout the day.

Locals said that huge numbers of law enforcers had been deployed in Jatrabari and adjacent areas since the morning. Over a thousand BNP activists tried to stage a sit-in at Matuail but faced police obstacles and chases, which triggered clashes.

Police opened fire with teargas and birdshots to disperse BNP activists, who retaliated with brickbats.

Several vehicles were set on fire there.

The first fire at Matuail was reported at about 12:30pm while the second one was reported in the area at about 1:30pm. The Shyamoli clash was reported later.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul alleged that police and AL activists launched attacks on their ‘peaceful programmes.’

On the other hand, Awami League general secretary and road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader, at a press conference at the party central office, alleged that the BNP had begun arson attacks again, as they did in 2013–14.

‘They [BNP] set fire to four buses in Matuail. They attacked a police van and ransacked it. Private cars and motorcycles were vandalised. Seven buses were attacked and set on fire in the capital,’ Quader said.

DMP deputy commissioner for Wari division Ziaul Ahsan Talukder said that at least eight buses came under attack and were torched on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway.

He said that transport movements were disrupted frequently because of the violence.

In Uttara, AL and its front organisations’ leaders and activists also joined with police and dispersed BNP activists from the road between Rajlokkhi and House Building crossings.

The police, aided by AL, clashed with the BNP, leaving at least 15 injured, including two journalists.

Ruling AL supporters holding bamboo sticks, iron rods and hockey sticks marched the busy roads wearing helmets in the presence of police immediately after the BNP left the spot.

Shyamoli saw two police cars vandalised and a bus burned on Saturday afternoon.

Rubaiyat Zaman, an additional deputy commissioner of DMP Tejgaon zone, claimed to New Age that two police cars were vandalised from a sudden procession of BNP while another bus of Welcome Paribahan was set on fire.

He said that some of their members were injured, and police detained several people.