DHAKA: Deaths of nine more people in two fresh arson attacks overnight took the Bangladesh unrest toll count to 75 as Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina vowed not to “surrender” to violence.

Three people were burnt to death after a truck was attacked early on Saturday in southwestern coastal Barisal as ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) continued its nationwide transport blockade for the 29th consecutive day since January 6.

In another incident, six passengers including a minor child were killed when the mob firebombed a bus in northwestern Gaibandha last night.

The fresh attacks came while BNP late Friday said it would intensify the antigovernment campaign enforcing a fresh 72 hours of general strike from Sunday to go hand in hand with their non-stop blockade.

The United Nations, meanwhile, said it would continue its efforts to help feuding parties resolve their differences while the BNP vowed to continue its campaign until the government stepped down. The ruling Awami League ruled out possibilities of any dialogue with Khaleda.

“We’ll continue to be in touch with the leaders of the two main parties, trying to make sure that they can resolve their differences,” Dhaka newspapers quoted UN secretary-general’s spokesperson Farhan Haq as saying.

Speaking at a “peace conference” staged by Rotary International Hasina Saturday said her government would not ‘surrender’ to the ongoing violence saying “we will not bow down to these heinous criminals”.

She compared the BNP activities with that of Daesh while blasting her arch-rival Khaleda saying “her perception of good and evil has been diluted. She has gone mad”.

A senior leader of her party yesterday ruled out possibilities of Awami League-BNP dialogue and called initiatives by foreign diplomats to break the political deadlock as “worthless” in a news briefing a meeting of the party’s highest decision making working committee.

“There will be no talks with those who are killing people by hurling petrol bombs. What they (BNP) is doing are terrorist activities. So no dialogue with them,” Awami League general secretary and local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam said.

Bus attack

Meanwhile, four people including a child and a woman were burnt to death and 30 others were wounded in the firebombing on the bus in Gaibandha while two of the burn injured died early Saturday at the burn unit of nearby Rangpur Medical College Hospital, police and doctors said.

In Barisal, the driver and two others died at the scene after suspected blockaders hurled petrol bombs on a truck loaded with poultry feed. “They died as the truck caught fire when hit by the bombs,” a police officer in Barisal told newsmen.

According to newspaper reports and hospital sources, of the 75 dead, nearly 60 were victims in firebombing or arson attacks on passenger buses and trucks since January 6, when BNP and its right wing allies including fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami enforced the non-stop blockade.

Violence intensified as the blockade was reinforced with countrywide or region-based general strikes with the latest such shutdown ended on Thursday evening after 108 hours of nationwide stoppage forcing authorities to defer twice the schedule of the crucial SSC exams of some 1.5 million children to mark the end of their 10 years of schooling.

Tougher action

Hasina earlier ruled out the possibility of a state of emergency, but the government decided to enforce a tough antiterrorism push to punish the “saboteurs or arsonists alongside their patrons” after Khaleda vowed to carry on the antigovernment movement.

The state-run Bangladesh Television warned the saboteurs would face death penalty for activities such as burning people to death by using petrol bombs on vehicles. The government ago issued a statement two days ago highlighting the other legal provisions against instigating and patronising violence.