BNP-Jamaat terrors set at least four passenger buses and an auto-rickshaw on fire in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon during their blockade programme.
They also hurled bombs on the railway tracks in Narayanganj, a neighbouring district of the capital Dhaka, on Saturday night.
According to sources, in a bid to foil the 12th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) election slated for January 7, 2024, anyhow, the BNP, Jamaat and their allies are desperately intensifying their acts of terrorism and atrocities triggering panic among the masses.
As the election is drawing near, they are adding new dimensions to their atrocities by resorting to sabotage in the railway sector and arson attacks on vehicles and various establishments.
In their acts of sabotage and arson attacks, at least six people, including a mother and her three-year-old child, were burnt alive while many others sustained burn injuries.
Besides, state-owned Bangladesh Railway, a lot of businessmen suffered a great loss in the act of sabotage and arson attacks on their vehicles or property.
The BNP and some of its allies are trying hard to foil the JS polls as their main leaders are ineligible to participate in polls because they are convicted by the court for their involvement in various anti-state acts and terrorism.
As their anti-government movement did not garner any public support, they opted for atrocities.
According to sources in the police and Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD), apart from around 40 sabotage acts in the railway sector, over 300 vehicles and 15 establishments, including two educational institutions, were burnt in separate arson attacks across the country since
October 28.
In view of averting sabotage acts and death of innocent people, the railway authorities have decided to suspend five pairs of trains running at night.
The FSCD officials on Sunday said, some 289 arson attacks have been reported across Bangladesh in the 58 days of programs of BNP, including hartal and blockade enforced by BNP and its allies as part of their anti-government movement.
Anwarul Islam, warehouse inspector of the FSCD (media cell), said the arson attacks were reported from October 28 to Sunday.
Some 285 vehicles and 15 structures were damaged during the period, he said.
He said, among the vehicles, 180 were buses, 45 trucks, 23 covered vans, eight motorcycles and 29 other vehicles.
Besides, the FSCD officials also said at least four arson attacks were recorded in 12 hours on Sunday. Of them, three buses were set ablaze in Dhaka city and one in Cumilla.
According to sources, the BNP and Jamaat have mainly targeted the state-owned railway sector, which is considered to be the safest and biggest sector for transportation.
Sources said the anti-liberation clique may have attempted to carry out more deadly attacks on trains to collapse the largest communication network as part of their deep rooted conspiracy to halt the growing success of the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The most shocking incident took place on December 18 when the terrors set a Dhaka bound train on fire in the capital’s Tejgaon leaving four people, including a mother and her three-year son, burnt alive inside a compartment of Mohanganj Express. Three compartments were damage entirely.
Earlier on December 13, BNP-Jamaat men deliberately removed around a 20-feet stretch of railway track leading to the derailment of a passenger train in Gazipur.
As the Dhaka-bound express train derailed, many of its compartments skidded off the track leaving at least one passenger dead and scores of others injured.
Police said such type of sabotage was carried out allegedly by the terrors of BNP and Jamaat as an attempt to throw the railway sector, the safest and biggest communication system in the country, in peril.
The pro-opposition saboteurs not only removed the railway track in Gazipur, they also carried out around 30 attacks on the railway sector at different times earlier during the blockade and hartal programmes, while more than 300 vehicles, including buses, trucks and ambulances, were also torched.
Common people urged the authorities concerned to take stern measures to make the country’s communication system secure.
On December 2, BNP-Jamaat miscreants removed nuts and bolts from Cox’s Bazar-Dhaka rail line in Ramu upazila, causing an almost half-an-hour delay of the Cox’s Bazar Express that had left the Cox’s Bazar station.
They set fire to a train standing at Ishwardi Junction Railway Station in Pabna on November 27.
BNP-Jamaat activists set fire to a coach of the intercity Upaban Express, which was parked at Sylhet railway station around 9:30 pm on November 22.
BNP-Jamaat supporters attached a heavy iron plate to the rail line at Kotolerbagh in an attempt to derail the train. On information, police rushed to the spot and removed the iron plate from the rail line.
On November 19, they set fire to two compartments of the Jamuna Express train, which was stationed at Jamalpur's Sarishabari railway station.
On November 16, they also set fire to the railway line in Dinajpur’s Birampur upazila.
Such type of sabotage in the railway sectors were also carried out in Sreepur upazila of Gazipur, Mymensingh, Joydebpur, Pabna, Cumilla, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Natore, and elsewhere in the country.