With attacks on goods-laden trucks continuing in different parts of the country, a helper died while a driver and his assistant sustained burns yesterday on the 23rd day of the non-stop blockade.

The deceased was Motaleb, 35. He died after jumping off the truck that came under a crude bomb attack at Ghoser Haat in Chandpur, said Abdul Qayyum, officer-in-charge of Chandpur Sadar Police Station.

As the truck driver lost control of the wheel following the bomb attack, he and the helper jumped off to save themselves. But the helper was run over by the rear wheels, he added. The driver however escaped unscathed.

With him the number of truck helpers' death in the ongoing blockade violence stood at five.

In Magura, driver Milon Hossain, 35, and helper Emarul Hossain, 18, suffered burns when alleged blockaders hurled a petrol bomb at their truck at Arpara Bazar of Shalikha around 4:30am yesterday, reports our Jhenidah correspondent.

Both the victims hail from Narayanpur village of Benapole in Jessore. The driver, having lost control over the steering, skidded off into a roadside ditch leading to the injury of five labourers on board the vehicle, said Biplob Kumar Nath, officer-in-charge of Shalikha Police Station.

The injured labourers took first aid from Magura Sadar Hospital while driver Milon was shifted to Jessore Medical College Hospital as his condition deteriorated.

Meanwhile, Islami Chhatra Shibir activist Sakibul Islam, 21, who suffered injuries while allegedly trying to explode a crude bomb at Kadamtoli in Chittagong, died in the capital's Apollo Hospitals early yesterday, reports our Chittagong correspondent. He was a Fazil student of Baitush Sharaf Madrasa in the port city.

With him the death toll in the blockade violence since January 5 rose to 35.

Shahidul

At least six vehicles were torched all over the country. One vehicle each was torched in Comilla (Daudkandi) and Magura, and two each in Dhaka and Bogra, said fire service officials.

To add to the sufferings of people, the BNP-led 20-party alliance called a daylong hartal in 11 districts including Dhaka for today protesting cases against BNP chief Khaleda Zia and remand of its acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in an arson case.

In the capital three passers-by were injured in crude bomb blasts. Asaduzzaman, aged around 27, was hit by a crude bomb around 8:30pm when he was crossing a street at Kalshi in Mirpur. He is a prospective judicial magistrate, said Syed Jiauzzaman, officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station.

In two other incidents of blasts, Jonab Ali, 45, was injured at the TSC of Dhaka University and Nasiruddin, 30, was injured at Chhuritola in Old Dhaka.

In Barisal, locals handed over to police two Shibir activists, Ismail Hossain and Mizanur Rahman -- both second-year students of Barisal Government BM College -- after they were caught trying to attack a vehicle in the city's Kashipur Bilbabari area yesterday.

Law enforcers arrested a local Jamaat leader in Chapainawabganj, a female leader of Islami Chhatri Sangstha of Jhalakathi Govt Girls College along with her brother in Jhalakathi, and nine BNP-Jamaat men in Chittagong.