30 establishments torched in 2 days

Protesters have set fire to at least 30 establishments, including the main building of Bangladesh Television, along with police and BGB vehicles over the last two days.

Arson attacks were also carried out on government and political party offices, police stations and outposts, and toll plazas.

Witnesses said a large number of students broke open the main gate of the BTV station in the capital's Rampura around 2:45pm on Thursday and set ablaze a part of the building.

The fire later spread to the main building, leading to suspension of BTV transmission, Mahafuza Aktar, general manager of BTV, told The Daily Star.

"We had to leave the building around 7:30pm."

Khaleda Yeasmin, duty officer of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, said two fire engines went to the BTV station but were barred by the protesters from entering.

Demonstrators set fire to the office of the Department of Disaster Management in the capital's Mohakhali around 3:30pm. The blaze damaged the cables of some data centres housed in an adjacent building.

Emdadul Haque, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh, said the centres lost at least 30 percent of their total bandwidth because of the damaged cables.

In the evening, the Setu Bhaban was set on fire, damaging at least 10 vehicles parked in front of the building, said an official of the Bridges Division. Demonstrators also vandalised the ground floor of the building.

In Madaripur, protestors set ablaze a police outpost and vandalised the offices of the superintendent of police and deputy commissioner.

The agitating students also set fire to a police outpost near the Madaripur launch terminal and the district Awami League office, according to police sources.

In Dhaka, protesters torched at least three police outposts in Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi-27 and Mirpur.

Towhidul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (Uttara division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said demonstrators set fire to two vans, including one of the police, in Uttara.

A vehicle of Border Guard Bangladesh was set on fire in Hatijheel around 6:00pm.

The Banani toll plaza of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway was set on fire around 9:00pm.

On Wednesday evening, demonstrators torched the toll plaza of the Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover in Jatrabari.

Sources in the Fire Service and Civil Defence yesterday said they received information of at least 33 violence-related fire incidents across the country from July 17 to midnight last night. Twenty-three of those took place in the Dhaka city corporation area.

Over the last two days, one fire was reported in Narayanganj, two fire incidents were reported in Gaibandha, two in Rangpur city, and one each in Kushtia, Sirajganj, Barishal, Natore and Madaripur districts, the release said.

It added that six buses, two microbuses, 20 motorcycles, two offices of political parties, a toll plaza, a police station, a police box, a police car, and two government offices were damaged.

In another release, the fire service said that at least five vehicles of their department were damaged and four staffers were hurt till 8:30pm yesterday.

Talha Bin Zasim, media officer of the fire service, said the four came under an attack by a group of people when they were going to discharge their duties.