[Bangla Daily Star] A 36-hour countrywide hartal... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
starts at 6:00am today amid public anxiety about violence, as the BNP-led 18-party alliance hinted at enforcing a tougher shutdown.
Despite strict security measures, pro-hartal activists set alight 11 vehicles in different parts of the capital, including near Dhaka College and New Market, and at Segunbagicha, Mirpur, Motijheel, Nayapaltan and Karwan Bazar since yesterday noon.
Police locked away
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
20 people for resorting to violence and torching vehicles. Of them, 10 were incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
by mobile courts for different terms between 15 days and one year, sources in the Dhaka Metropolitan Police said.
In Gazipur, myrmidons set a bus ablaze in Chandana of Sadar upazila last night while in Mymensingh, myrmidons torched a train coach in the evening.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves...
criminals blasted a homemade bomb at Boalia Police Station in Rajshahi last night, leaving three coppers injured.
Tornado-hit Brahmanbaria will be out of the purview of the strike. Besides, media vehicles, ambulance and other transport of emergency services have been exempted from the purview of hartal.
BNP Chairperson
Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
last night directed her party high-ups, politicians and city leaders to ensure their presence on roads during the hartal to make it a success, party insiders said.
"Aggrieved at the inactiveness of the central and top leaders during recent hartals, the BNP chief told the top leaders that the ongoing anti-government movement won't be successful if they remain inactive," a BNP leader told The Daily Star on Monday.
Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
, the key ally of BNP in the 18-party alliance, has also instructed its leaders and activists to ensure their strong presence on the streets since the morning today, said several Jamaat leaders.
The 18-party alliance on March 25 announced the hartal as part of its fresh agitation to put pressure on the Awami League-led grand alliance government to meet its demands, including the release of opposition leaders, stopping government-sponsored "genocide," restoration of caretaker government system and resignation of the government.
The government has taken tough security measures, including deployment of mobile courts and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members, who will patrol the roads during hartal hours to help police maintain law and order.
"BGB members will also be deployed outside Dhaka, if required by the district administrations," Muhasin Reza, public relations officer of BGB, told The Daily Star.
A large number of police and Rapid Action Battalion members have already been deployed in and outside the capital to beef up security.