Unknown miscreants attacked a motorcade carrying Bangladesh Nationalist Party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and party activists in Laxmipur town on Monday afternoon leaving at least 15 injured. Fakhrul escaped unhurt as the car carrying him was not damaged but several others, including three journalists, were injured in the attack which took place in front of the house of Awami League leader Abu Taher.
The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, has condemned the attack. BNP and its associate bodies staged protests in Dhaka.
The BNP accused goons of Awami League for the attack and said the incident proved that local 'crime bosses' backed by AL had unleashed a reign of terror.
Witnesses said Fakhrul was going to meet BNP lawmaker Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie after attending a rally at a local community centre, when a group of youths attacked the motorcade and smashed the windshields of a microbus.
They also dragged some of its passengers out and beat them up, they said.
Tareq Salman, a reporter of Dhaka daily Amader Somoy, who was in the motorcade said the youths had forced them out of the car and started striking them with sticks. 'When I gave them my identity, they spared me after striking me twice,' he said.
A senior reporter of Radio Today, Shahabuddin Chowdhury, and Mohammad Mohsin of barta24.com also sustained injuries in the attack.
The attackers vandalised five vehicles – two cars and three motorbikes – during the attack.
Earlier at the conference at the community centre, Mirz Fakhrul said the movement to topple the government would begin from Laxmipur claiming that the Awami goons had killed 32 leaders and activists of BNP there.
He said the president had created the worst instance of politicisation by awarding clemency to a convicted killer of BNP leader Nurul Islam. 'The people of Laxmipur have been denied justice by the president's act,' he said.
Fakhrul said the BNP would wage a vigorous movement after Eid to unseat the government.
He asked the president to withdraw the clemency to the killers of Nurul Islam.
Source : New Age
