Outraged by frequent power outages, thousands of people took to the streets since Wednesday night triggering battles between protestors and law-enforcing agencies in the capital and its outskirts.(New Nation)

Hospital, clinic and police sources said as many as 200 people, including policemen were injured during the 19-hour-long violent clashes.

During the clashes, scores of motor vehicles, including RAB-police vans were set ablaze. Police fired teargas shells, rubber bullets to tackle violent demonstrators.

Hundreds of people attacked electricity offices in different areas including Kafrul, Pallabi, Mirpur, Lalbagh, Shonir Akhra and Tejgaon Industrial Area in the city Wednesday night.

Witnesses said groups of people started the violent protests after breaking their Ramadan fast on Wednesday evening.

“Since then we had been experiencing an unusual on-again, off-again electricity supply that we had not seen ever before, causing immense sufferings, mainly to women, children, infants and elderly people throughout the night in abnormally hot and humid weather. We had been constantly sweating inside our houses amid sweltering heat,’ said Yunus Mollah, a resident of Senpara area in Mirpur.

Locals said just after that hundreds of youth came out from their houses in Senpara and adjoining areas and attacked local power offices, barricaded roads, and damaged or set afire pickup vans of police and elite-force RAB during the frenzied protests.

Police fired teargas shells and rubber bullets to drive away the violent demonstrators, but the rampages continued late into the day

on yesterday.

In Mirpur, thousands of people rampaged through the area to protest power outages prompting the police to fire rubber bullets and teargas shells to control violence.

Policemen were among more than 100 people injured in violent incidents that turned a stretch of the road from Mirpur Section 12 to Mirpur 10 to Shewrapara into a battlefield.

The protesters set fire to Desco’s Pallabi substation and damaged the Inquiry Centre of Purabi Power Office and a number of vehicles to protest the outages that crippled much of the country. Desco officials said the damaged caused was so serious that the substations would take 15 days to fully repair.

Traffic came to a standstill and did not return to normal until 4pm when rain started. The police put barbed wire fences on the roads at Mirpur.

In the face of massive outrage, antiriot police, 350 members of RAB and BDR were deployed to the area, who went into action.

RAB-4 sources said that the locals brought out a procession to protest power disruptions. They said, RAB were deployed at the area to assist the police.

Mirpur police said the angry people laid siege to 5 kilometres of road from Mirpur 12 to Shewrapara halting the movement of traffic from yesterday morning.

The demonstrators blocked Mirpur 12-Agargaon route disrupting transport movement for 19 hours. At least nine vehicles, including minibuses and cop vans, were damaged in the Mirpur area.

All police patrols from Mirpur Road No. 10 to 12 were withdrawn to avoid further attack on them by the militant protestors, including opposition political activists.

Outraged by blackouts, people went on the rampage in Shanir Akhra, Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Lalbagh, Keraniganj and Narayanganj.

In the wake of widespread violence between people and law enforcers, and attacks on PDB, DESA and DESCO offices in the city, State Minister for Power Maj Gen (Retd) Anwarul Kabir Talukder left Dhaka for his constituency in Jamalpur yesterday morning to address a public meeting.

In absence of Talukder, State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar convened a high-level meeting on nagging power situation at his ministry’s conference room in the morning, where a decision to stop supplying electricity to billboards in the city was taken.

Besides, the meeting decided to suspend power supplies to the city’s shopping malls for four hours that have their own power generators.

However, the decision that came into effect from yesterday prompted angry reactions from shop owners.

After the meeting that lasted for almost two hours, Babar told reporters that it would be possible to save 25 megawatt of electricity by suspending power supply to billboards.

Besides, another 50 megawatt would be saved if the priorities were determined. “In total, we’ll be able to save 75mw of electricity,’ he said.

Power Secretary Engr ANH Akhtar Hossain requested the people to try to understand the problems. He said electricity sub-stations are the national property. Nothing would yield through vandalism. “We’re trying to manage the situation,” he said.

However, Dhaka City Shop Owners Association president Helal Uddin Ahmed described the government decision as ‘unwanted and unacceptable.’

“There are about 350 shopping malls in the city. A few have power generators of their own,” he said. ”We will sit at an emergency meeting Friday to make a decision on the issue.” said.

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina said the government was facing an outburst of public anger for its involvement in massive corruption with power sector during its tenure.

AL lawmakers also staged a brief walkout from the Jatiya Sangsad protesting the Speaker's refusal to hold a discussion on power crisis, but Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar refused to do so.

In Keraniganj, about 20,000 people came out into the dark to protest power outages and set fire to a RAB patrol vehicle in Keraniganj early yesterday.

The protesters laid siege to the local office of the Rural Electrification Board in an area and broke at least 15 arches built by the ruling BNP for political publicity.

The police arrested at least five people on the scene. Calm returned to the area after six hours of protest.

Our Keraniganj correspondent said that 50-60 vehicles were ransacked and one pickup of RAB-10 was set afire as thousands of power-hungry people took the street on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway in the morning demanding power and water.

The agitated mobs set fire to the vehicle of RAB-10 at 12noon. They blockaded the busiest highway and the unrest was continuing till the filing of the report at 1pm.

According to the sources, angry protestors set fire to two pickup vans of Rapid Action Battalion personnel and police in Keraniganj area amid raging violence since 3am to 5am Wednesday, leaving 10 police and four RAB men injured.

It is learnt that the power-supply situation aggravated with a 210-MW unit at Ghorashal power station having tripped Tuesday for ‘technical faults’ knocking the total power generation down 3,000 megawatts. The known demand for power in the country is around 5,000 megawatts.

Condition of RAB officer Abul Kashem was stated “critical”.