72-hr hartal, once again

With the common people, particularly the SSC examinees, already pushed into a tight corner by repeated hartals, the BNP-led alliance yesterday called yet another 72-hour countrywide shutdown from 6:00am tomorrow.

The strike will be in force until 6:00am on Wednesday protesting "killing of opposition leaders and activists in the name of crossfire and filing of false cases against alliance leaders," according to a press release from the BNP.

The 20-party combine has enforced nationwide hartals for 19 days since January 5 when it called an indefinite blockade of road, rail and waterways across the country.

BNP Joint Secretary General Salauddin Ahmed in the statement also demanded a fresh election under a non-partisan administration, and release of all political prisoners.

The release said the 20-party alliance will stage demonstrations across the country on Monday.

SSC EXAMINEES IN A FIX

The fresh nationwide hartal has put around 1.5 million SSC examinees in a fix as two of their exams are slated for tomorrow and Tuesday.     

The students could take only five exams in last 18 days, that too on weekends. Candidates under eight general education boards took the math exam yesterday.

Though the law enforcers patrolled the streets in and around the exam centres, a sense of insecurity prevailed among the students and guardians.

Shima Akhtar, mother of an SSC candidate from Gendaria High School, said she doesn't care about her daughter's result as the exams have been put off frequently.

Tanvir Ahmed of Islamia Govt High School said he could not make a good preparation for the math test due to the interruption to the schedule.

An examinee from Govt Science Collegiate School, Mugdha Banik said: "Frequent changes to the routine make the preparation of the students really difficult. I don't know whether the Chemistry exam will be held on Sunday [tomorrow] or not."

Earlier, the education ministry had to reschedule the February 2, 4, 8 and 10 exams for February 6, 7, 13, and 14.