Mirpur-10 erupts as hawkers fight DNCC eviction drive

An operation to clear hawkers from one of Dhaka’s busiest commercial intersections descended into street battles on Wednesday.

Hundreds of traders clashed with police and Dhaka North City Corporation workers in Mirpur-10 as the eviction drive turned violent.

At least three DNCC garbage trucks were set on fire, while a police vehicle and an excavator used in the operation were vandalised.

Several police personnel and journalists were injured by bricks and stones during the clashes, which brought traffic in the area to a standstill..

The confrontation began after a DNCC mobile court, backed by police, moved to clear illegal shops and stalls from footpaths and roads around Mirpur-10 on Wednesday morning.

The operation was part of a broader DNCC drive stretching from Mirpur-10 towards Mirpur-14. UNB reported that the operation began at around 10 am.

Hawkers and local traders quickly organised resistance. Witnesses said bricks and stones were initially thrown at city corporation vehicles before the confrontation spread, with crowds attacking equipment and vehicles used in the operation.

Police responded with tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. But the number of hawkers substantially outnumbered officers at points, forcing police personnel to retreat as stones continued to rain down from different directions.

By around noon, a large group of hawkers had gathered near Ideal College while police took positions around the Mirpur-10 roundabout. Shops shuttered and traffic through the area ground to a halt.

Police confirmed that three DNCC garbage trucks had been torched. The Daily Star separately reported that a police vehicle was vandalised during the violence.

Mirpur Model Police Station duty officer Mohammad Shahidul Islam confirmed the clashes and damage to vehicles to Daily Waadaa. The full number of injured and the extent of the damage were not immediately clear.

Reports from the scene also pointed to an electrical short circuit as a possible source of a separate fire during the operation. Two Fire Service units were dispatched as the unrest continued.

Days of evictions

Wednesday’s violence followed several days of increasingly aggressive attempts to reclaim footpaths around Mirpur.

On Tuesday, DNCC carried out an operation from Agargaon through Shewrapara and Kazipara to the Mirpur-10 roundabout, demolishing or removing illegal roadside shops and temporary structures. The operation also removed the widely discussed “Mizan’s rice hotel” from an Agargaon footpath.

Two days earlier, on September 28, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited conducted a separate mobile court operation beneath Mirpur-10 Metro Rail Station, removing makeshift shops and confiscating goods from stalls around the station’s four entrances.

DNCC had also conducted an eviction drive in Mirpur-10, Senpara and Tejgaon last week. That operation, led by Executive Magistrate Marufa Begum Nelly, was backed by 31 members of the Dhaka Metropolitan Ansar Battalion.

On Saturday, DNCC Administrator Shafiqul Islam Khan visited an eviction operation at Mirpur-10’s fruit market and said illegal structures would not be allowed to remain on footpaths because pedestrians must be able to use them safely.

Earlier, additional police were deployed as tensions persisted in the area.

DNCC had not immediately issued a detailed account of the clashes. The city corporation said its administrator, Shafiqul Islam Khan, would brief journalists on the situation.

--