84-hr Hartal Begins 9 more burnt in hartal arson Hartal and pre-hartal violence has left at least one person dead, nine people burnt and over 120 people injured. Pro-hartal pickets hurled a petrol bomb inside a packed human haulier, burning six of its passengers in Laxmi Bazar of Old Dhaka around 9:00pm yesterday, the first day of the opposition’s 84-hour shutdown. The injured were rushed to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Of them, Montu Chandra Paul, 32, a jeweller by profession, has suffered burns on around 90 percent of his body. The other injured are Kamal Hossain with nearly 25 percent of his body burnt, Muktar Mondol with 15 percent and Sagor Das, Mintu Das, Swapna Mondol and Mukta Mondol with less than five percent. After the horrifying death of 14-year-old Monir on Thursday, who was burnt by pickets in Gazipur, 13-year-old Ronny and 10-year-old Shimul became the latest child victims of arson carried out in similar fashion. Pro-hartal supporters set fire to a parked bus in Mirpur in the capital around dawn yesterday. Ronny, who worked as the bus helper, was inside during the attack. With flames all around him, the teenager somehow managed to break a window with his foot and get out. Shimul was trapped in a human haulier, which the hartal-makers set fire to around 10:00pm on Sat Mashjid Road in the capital. Not caring about injuries to himself, pedestrian Mishor Khan got the child out of the burning vehicle. Shimul had 15 percent of his body blistered and was taken to DMCH. The boy was apparently alone in the human haulier and he could not say more than his name and age before he passed out at DMCH. Harunur Rashid, 32, a rental car driver, was trying to get back to Mymensingh town after dropping off his client out of town on the eve of the hartal on Saturday. Around 8:30pm, pro-hartal supporters hurled brick chunks and eventually a Molotov cocktail at his microbus near the town. Montu, Kamal, Muktar, Harun, Shimul and Ronny were in critical condition with burn injuries at DMCH.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 17:05:41 +0000