Jamaat’s hartal resumes today

The staggered 72-hour nationwide general strike called by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami resumes this morning after a two-day gap for the weekends on Friday and Saturday.The Jamaat on Wednesday called the strike in two phases for Thursday and Sunday-Monday in protest at the capital punishment handed down to its amir Motiur Rahman Nizami by an internaqtional crimes tribunal for the war crimes he had committed during the Liberation War in 1971.Jamaat called the judgement pronounced by International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Wednesday a ‘conspiracy’ to ‘kill’ Nizami in ‘false’ cases.The 24-hour first phase of hartal was largely ignored by the people on Thursday. They second phase of 48-hour strike starts at 6:00am today.

Jamaat sources said they were waiting for the verdict in Mir Quasem Ali’s case which is scheduled for today to enforce yet another spell of hartal.‘We will announce a fresh 24-hour hartal if Mir Quasem is awarded maximum punishment,’ an executive council member of Jamaat said.Meanwhile, over a hundred of activists of Jamaat and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir were detained across the country ahead of the hartal on Saturday.Jamaat-Shibir men staged demonstrations and clashed with the police in Dhaka city and elsewhere on the day.In the capital’s Mirpur, Jamaat and Shibir activists clashed with police at Kazipara neighbourhood after police chased a procession they took out Saturday morning.

A Shibir activist was picked up from the spot after the protesters started vandalising buses and hurled crude bombs, said Mirpur police sub-inspector Suruj Mia.
At Shutrapur, Jamaat-Shibir men in the morning took out a procession but they quickly dispersed after police appeared on the spot, witnesses said.New Age Sylhet correspondent reported that the police detained five Shibir activists after the protesters brought out a procession in Jaintapur upazila town on Saturday afternoon.
New Age Moulvibazaar correspondent reported that two Jamaat men were arrested at Baralekha in the morning for their suspected subversive activities.New Age Tangail correspondent reported that a Jamaat activist was arrested in Modhupur Natun Bazaar area after breaking up a procession in the morning.New Age Rajshahi University correspondent reported that Motihar police arrested five Shibir men in an overnight drive at three halls of the university.Ambulance, vehicles carrying bodies and hospital and fire service vehicles will remain out of the purview of today’s hartal, said Jamaat.