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One dead, 50 hurt in Bangladesh airport protest

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One dead, 50 hurt in Bangladesh airport protest

One dead, 50 hurt in Bangladesh airport protest | World | Reuters

Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:14am GMT

DHAKA (Reuters) - Angry protesters in Bangladesh clashed with police on Monday over a government plan to acquire their land for a new airport, killing one policeman and injuring dozens.

Bangladeshi police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse villagers who set fire to a police camp during the protests, witnesses said.

The protesters, many carrying sticks, choppers and spears, burnt a police van and barricaded main roads, they added.

Villagers and opposition political parties oppose the plan to build the new international airport only few kilometres from Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal airport.

Police said one of their officers was killed and some 50 people, including at least nine policemen, were injured in the clashes.

"We are facing a huge problem with violent protesters, many policemen are also injured, there's nothing more I can say at the moment," said a police officer on duty at their control room in the area.

"It's a running battle going on between security forces and thousands of protesters streaming out of their villages," said another police officer at the scene.

State Minister for Law, Qamrul Islam, said on Sunday the project would go ahead and the protests were being "provoked by the government's foes."

Affected people would be adequately compensated, he said.

The airport is due to be named after the dead father of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the country's independence leader and first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"The violence is spreading though firefighters have doused the camp fire," a Reuters witness said by telephone from Munshiganj district, 20 km (12 miles) south of the capital.

"Police are struggling to reopen the closed roads but failed, being overwhelmed by the surge of men and women," said another witness.

Bangladesh has three international airports: in Dhaka, the southeastern city of Chittagong and Sylhet in the northeast.

Critics say those airports are not operating at capacity and there is no need for another one.

(Reporting by Anis Ahmed; Additional reporting by Nizam Ahmed & Ruma Paul; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)
 
If this continues for a few more days, I'm joining the protests ......no questions. Packing up my lenses right now. Lets see what happens..Those poor people, I feel bad for them.
 
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Munshiganj incident a ploy to foil war crimes trial


Mon, Jan 31st, 2011 10:03 pm BdST

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Dhaka, Jan 31 (bdnews24.com)—BNP is conspiring to turn the Munshiganj incident into a political issue aimed at diverting public attention from war crimes trial, several ruling party MPs have alleged.

Locals have been opposing the 11,250-acre airport project stretching over Munshiganj's Sreenagar and Dhaka's Nababganj and Dohar Upazilas.

At least one policeman died and another 42 people were injured, including four policemen in a day-long clash on Monday.

Munshiganj-1 MP Sukumar Ranjan Ghose, blaming the opposition chief, said: "The BNP cadres have resorted to criminal activities upon orders by Khaleda Zia."

He claimed the situation was created to mislead the local people and to obstruct any agreement by them with the government.

The ruling party MP also alleged that a good amount of money was spent to provoke the locals.

Sukumar made the comments from a press conference organised by the Awami League at its party president's office at Dhanmondi.

He assured that the government would compensate not only the land owners, but also those who make a living out of the Arial Beel.

Whip and Munshiganj-2 MP Sagufta Yeasmin Emili, Munshiganj-3 MP Idris Ali and senior leaders of the party attended the press briefing.

The speakers also expressed condolences over the death of the policeman.

The MP further said: "The opposition in no way can avoid its responsibility over the incident."

He cited the speech by Khaleda on Saturday when she said the airport was unnecessary. "She also urged party activists to stop any move to build an airport," the MP alleged.

"We've come to know that Khaleda not only instigated the locals to take law into their own hands, but also distributed money among them. All this point to her complicity in the incident," he claimed.

"We held several formal and informal meetings with the local protection committee. Even we're set to hold another meeting with them on Tuesday at the parliament building."

Sukumar, meanwhile, urged locals to be on guard against any subversive activities and not to fall into any political trap or conspiracy.
 
Awami and war crime.......I guess now all these poor people also anti liberation forces and Razakars........:woot:

Who's with me here.....:lol::rofl::rofl:
 
What is cooking? Airport or people's discontent?

Now, both building airport or giving up building airport will be negative points for Awami League after doing so much acting, lol.
 
La-Hasina opened up a can worms. She has made more enemy then she can handle. I hope she finished up the jobs that was prescribed by her Masters otherwise she will be burn by her own fire. :)
 
Cop killed, many more injured


Mon, Jan 31st, 2011 6:03 pm BdST

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Shamim Ahmed

Munshiganj, Jan 31 (bdnews24.com) – Daylong clashes between police and demonstrators protesting the proposed Bangabandhu International Airport in Munshiganj has left a policeman killed and over 40 people injured.

Doctors at Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital declared sub-inspector Matiur Rahman, 45, dead when he, along with his four fellows, was brought to the hospital around 2:45pm on Monday.

However, there was no official statement on the death from the police.

Inspector general of police Hassan Mahmood Khandker, while visiting the injured police personnel at the hospital, said that tough steps would be taken against the attackers.

Correspondents of Bengali daily Prothom Alo and private TV channel ATN News and several other local correspondents were also injured in the clashes.

Munshiganj police superintendent Shafiqul Islam told bdnews24.com that traffic on Dhaka-Mawa highway resumed around 4pm after hours of disruption due to the demonstrations.

He said additional police and Rapid Action Battalion members had been deployed in the area. "The situation is now under control."

The protestors took to the street at Srinagar Bazaar in the morning in response to a call by Arial Beel Protection Committee and blocked the highway around 7am, halting long-distance traffic.

The demonstrators have been demanding that the airport project site be relocated from the district, claiming that thousands of people would be left unemployed if the project is implemented.

Around 11,250 acres of land is needed for the project estimated to cost Tk 500 billion. Dhaka and Munshiganj districts administrations have been assigned to acquire the land stretching into Munshiganj's Sreenagar Upazila and Dhaka's Nababganj and Dohar Upazilas.

Shajahan Badal, general secretary of the protection committee, told bdnews24.com that the demonstration was called protesting the case filed against 4,026 people over the clash between law enforcers and protesters, who were on their way to join a rally at Muktangan in Dhaka on Jan 26.

DAY'S TURMOIL

Around 500 police personnel were deployed in Munshiganj in the morning, who, according to witnesses, discouraged vehicle movement in the area.

Sreenagar police chief Shakhawat Hossain told bdnews24.com that the agitators turned violent when the law enforcers tried to disperse them from the highway around noon. At one point, they attacked the law enforcers, triggering the clash.

The police personnel, as said by Hossain, were compelled to charge batons and fire rubber bullets on the demonstrators as they had been hurling brickbats. At least 42 people were injured at that time.

He said a group of unruly protesters set fire to Hasara police camp around 1pm. The fire was doused immediately.

By 11am, they took position on different points of the highway in between Chhanbari and Kuchiamor areas.

ATTACK ON PROTESTERS

Locals said around 15,000 people from adjacent Keutkhali, Karikhali, Laskarpur, Alampur and Nidarpur areas, carrying sharp weapons, brought out a procession around 12noon.

They shouted slogans demanding expulsion of local MP Sukumar Ranjan Ghosh.

They locked into clashes with the law enforcers when the law enforcers tried to bar them.

At one stage, more police, led by executive magistrate Shafiul Islam, were deployed in the area and they immediately started firing teargas shells and spraying hot water on the demonstrators.

The demonstrators chased the police when water canons and the stock of teargas shells ran out around 1pm.

The police personnel then started retreating.

But the demonstrators managed to attack some of the police personnel on a car. They vandalised the car and beat up the police personnel with rods and sticks.

They also vandalised a water canon.

ATTACK ON JOURNALISTS

The demonstrators attacked the journalists while chasing the police around 1pm.

The motorcycle of Prothom Alo correspondent Golam Mortuza was torched. The demonstrators beat him up severely with sticks.

He was admitted to Dhaka's Trauma Centre with serious injuries.

Several other photojournalists were also assaulted.

bdnews24.com/corr/kt/rm/sha/kms/pd/pks/ost/mr/2200h
 
Khaleda sued for 'instigating violence'


Tue, Feb 1st, 2011 1:51 pm BdST

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Munshiganj, Feb 1 (bdnews24.com) — A case has been filed against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on charge of instigating Monday's violence in Munshiganj that left a policeman dead and many people injured.

Munshiganj unit Awami League president and public prosecutor Abdul Matin filed the case against Khaleda and 3,000 unnamed people with judicial magistrate's court on Tuesday morning.

In his case statement, Matin alleged that Khaleda in her speech at a meeting with pro-BNP lawyers on Jan 29 instigated the local people to take to the streets and clash with police.

Senior judicial magistrate Abu Hasnat ordered the officer-in-charge of Srinagar Police Station to accept the case, assistant public prosecutor Nasima Akhter told bdnews24.com.

Forty-two people, including four policemen, were also injured in the daylong clashes between police and demonstrators who were protesting the construction of an airport at Arrial Beel in Munshiganj.

At a meeting with Jatyiatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a platform of pro-BNP Lawyers, on Jan 29, said the main reason behind setting up another airport was to 'plunder hundreds of billions of taka'.

bdnews24.com/corr/ost/tk/mr/1520h
 

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