Hartal on again after weekend

Another spell of 72-hour countrywide hartal starts this morning and it is likely to inflict further misery on people, cause more damage to the economy and put some 1.5 million children sitting for the SSC and equivalent exams in further uncertainty.

BNP joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed, on behalf of the 20-party alliance, yesterday in a statement announced the shutdown programme to press home the alliance's various demands, including holding of a fresh election under a non-party administration.

The education ministry postponed the SSC and equivalent tests scheduled for today and Tuesday after the 20-party alliance announced to enforce the shutdown. Officials of the ministry said new dates for the exams would be announced later.

The BNP-led combine has been enforcing the countrywide hartal on all working days since February 1, alongside its indefinite blockade which remains in force for 61 consecutive days.

The blockade and hartal had already claimed 83 lives. Of them, 66 people had no affiliation with any political party. Besides, 41 people were killed in "shootouts" with law enforcement agencies during the ongoing political turmoil, according to The Daily Star reports.

The country's top business chambers estimate daily loss of businesses at Tk 2,277 crore a day in the ongoing blockade.

Meanwhile, incidents of arson attack, recovery of firebombs and arrests of leaders and activists of the 20-party alliance were reported from across the country yesterday.

In Noakhali, criminals torched the local land office (assistant commissioner's office) by hurling two petrol bombs inside it through the window early yesterday. Several furniture and some important documents were burnt, reports our Noakhali correspondent, quoting Mahbub Alam, station officer of Noakhali fire service.

Criminals broke the window of the office and threw the bombs inside a room, said Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Shamsuzzaman. Fire fighters doused the flames later.

No one was arrested in connection with the arson attack, police said.

Criminals set fire to a carriage of a shuttle train of Chittagong University at Sholoshohor Railway Station in the port city around 8:00pm yesterday.

Locals extinguished the fire before it could spread further.

Mohammad Suman, 18, a garment worker, suffered injuries in the throat when criminals exploded several crude bombs at the station to make an escape, said Ekram Hossain, sub-inspector of Panchlaish Police Station.

Suman was rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.

No one was detained in this connection.

In two separate incidents, members of Border Guard Bangladesh recovered 29 firebombs from Comilla and Chapainawabganj yesterday.

In Comilla, a team of BGB-10, on information, raided Balutupa area in Sadar upazila around 12:10am and recovered 25 abandoned petrol bombs, said Lt Col Mokhlesur Rahman, commanding officer of BGB 10 Battalion.

In Chapainawabganj, BGB personnel and police in a drive recovered four petrol bombs and some bomb making materials from an abandoned cinema hall at Udayan intersection in the town yesterday.

Meanwhile, alleged pickets torched two buses in Dhaka and Comilla yesterday.

In Dhaka, hartal supporters set alight a bus at Mirpur-14 around 9:45pm, while criminals torched a bus at Chandina in Comilla around 11:30pm.

Police yesterday detained at least 37 BNP-Jamaat men at Sitakunda and Lohagara upazilas in Chittagong and from different places in Rangpur for their alleged involvement in subversive activities, report our district correspondents.