| There's plenty more at the B-desh news sites, but this will give you the flavor of the pointlessness of it all. |
Around 100 vehicles including motorcycles, jeeps, pick-ups, a police van and a fire truck were torched during the incident. Besides, around 20 shops were set ablaze, said police.
Meanwhile, a Jamaat activist died in Khulna in fighting between police and Shibir men. The victim was identified as Mansur Ali Gazi, 40, an activist of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Of the dead in Chittagong, two were primarily identified as Forkan and Biplob, but the other could not yet be named, Superintendent of Police in Chittagong AKM Hafiz Akhter told The Daily Star around 1:00am today.
Quoting local AL leaders, the SP said that two of the dead were ruling party activists.
The clashes broke out around 1:30pm when an anti-hartal procession by AL activists in Kazirhat area in Fatikchhari upazila came under attack. The attack followed an announcement over loudspeakers from Kazirhat Bazar Jame Mosque that a procession was coming to attack the mosque, said Shubash Barua, assistant sub-inspector of Bhujpur Police Station.
Police said more than 500 AL leaders and workers brought out a vehicle procession from Fatikchhari around 11:30am. As the processionists were returning after parading through Bhujpur, they came under attack in Kazirhat Bazar area. Locals of Kazirhat, students of Kazirhat madrasa and activists of Jamaat and Hefajat, came out in their hundreds following the announcement from the mosque and attacked the procession with sharp weapons and sticks.
The fighting continued for nearly four hours, leaving at least 100 people including 15 policemen and five firefighters wounded. Of the three killed, two died on the spot and the other at a local hospital.
Police said they could not take the injured to hospitals soon enough as the attackers blocked the road for around two hours. Police fired several rounds to disperse the AL and Hefajat men but to little avail. Later, two platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were deployed to calm the situation.