Hartal underway loosely

New Age Online

The first day of two-day dawn-to-dusk shutdown is passing across the country with no major incidents.The shutdown began at 6:00am and will end at 5:30pm on each day.The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on Tuesday called a two-day day-long nationwide general strike for Wednesday and Thursday protesting at the ‘government’s conspiracy to kill’ its assistant secretary general ATM Azharul Islam and demanding release of its detained leaders.
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 in Dhaka on Tuesday awarded death penalty to Azharul Islam for committing genocide and mass killings in Rangpur during the country’s War of Liberation.In the capital, the picketers set a lorry on fire at Ghuntighar in Jatrabari early morning, a TV channel reports.Besides, rickshaw and CNG-run auto-rickshaws dominated the city streets while the number of commuter buses was thin.The anti-shutdown activists took to the street along Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital and some others places.

The police were deployed in the key points of the city to avert any unwarranted situation.Ambulances, dead body-carrying vehicles, media vehicles and vehicles of the fire brigade and hospitals are out of the strike purview.In Munshiganj, the shutdown is passing peacefully. The mills and factories are operating normally, as of writing this story at 11:50am. No long-route bus left, though ferry communications were normal on Shimulia-Kawrakandi route with a less number of travellers.In Chittagong, Islami Chhatra Shibir, student organisation of Jamaat, brought out a procession in the city’s Muradpur area at around 7:00am in support of hartal while the police dispersed them by chasing.No long-route bus moved from the district while the train communications were normal.

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