Fire Service control room duty officer Brojen Sarker provided bdnews24.com with the figure at around 9:10pm.
The vehicles were torched at different areas including Kalyanpur, Farmgate, Malibagh, Kakrail, Khilgaon, Chankharpul, Naya Paltan, Kaptan Bazar, Baitul Mukarram National Mosque throughout the day, police and fire-fighters said.
Main opposition BNP along with its allies will enforce two days of daylong nationwide shutdowns starting Monday demanding release of its leaders and activists detained from the party's Naya Paltan headquarters.
Police on Sunday held the opposition supporters responsible for setting the vehicles on fire.
Apart from torching vehicles, several handmade bombs were also detonated at different places in Dhaka and Chittagong.
The arson incidents began at around 1pm when a 'New Vision Paribahan' bus was set ablaze at Paltan in front of Baitul Mukarram.
Fire Service and Civil Defence (Ramna Zone) Senior Station Officer Mostafa Mohsin said two of their units rushed to the spot and doused the flames.
A mini-truck was torched around 2pm in front of the City Bank near BNP office.
A second bus was burned near Ayesha Shopping Complex at Malibagh around 1:40pm, Ramna Police Station Inspector (patrol) Mohammad Shahid said.
Citing eyewitnesses, he said, "The bus was seen engulfed in flames soon after some boys were seen running away from the spot. Fire-fighters doused the fire immediately."
Another bus (Motijheel-Gulshan) was torched at Farmgate at around 2pm, Fire Service control room official Mohammad Alim said. "Two units were deployed to douse the flames."
Meanwhile, eyewitnesses said miscreants attempted to set fire to a covered van in New Eskaton in 'BIAM Bhaban' alley around 3pm, but flames were doused right away.
Unidentified miscreants torched the fourth bus in front of Khalek Petrol Pump at Kalyanpur around same time, witnesses said.
Fire Service control room's officer Ziaur Rahman had told bdnews24.com that at around 5:45pm they had primary information that at least three more buses were also torched at Khilgaon, Mirpur-12 intersection and Kakrail.
Another bus was seen engulfed in flames at Chankharpul at around 7pm in the evening.
It was, however, unclear exactly who were behind the arson. Generally, strike supporters launch such attacks to scare people ahead of any planned shutdowns.
Meanwhile, a mob beat up a 'strike supporter' and turned him in to police as he allegedly tried to set ablaze a CNG auto-ricklshaw in front of the Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters at the capital's Segunbagicha.
Another bus was set on fire at Banani's Kakali area around 9:45pm.
Police, however, said they have detained 15 people for their involvement in the vandalism and arson incidents in the capital.
Vehicles were also vandalised and torched in different districts outside Dhaka.
Communications Minister Obaidul Quader recently said that at least 97 vehicles were burned and 598 more were vandalised in recent times which caused the transport sector to lose over Tk 200 million.
http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2013/03/17/19-vehicles-torched-in-dhaka-ahead-of-strike
রাজধানীতে ১২টি গাড়িতে আগুন, আটক ১৫ (ভিডিও)
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