This is mindless

BNP had already announced on Thursday that it would go for week-long hartal should they not be allowed to stage protest rallies in Dhaka on Saturday.  And they were not to be seen anywhere on the streets. Instead we have another 72 hours of hartal. This time it is in protest of, according to the BNP, the “conspiracy to starve its chief Khaleda Zia to death.” Wasn't the BNP waiting for such an opportunity to prolong hartal and oborodh? And the government has given them an excuse for it as they did by turning down BNP's request for January 5 Dhaka rally.

And while one cannot accept that so much of violence should have followed that refusal, violence is what we have endured for the last six weeks that has taken the lives of nearly a hundred people. It was rank bad idea on the part of the government not to have allowed the BNP to organise political programmes on Jan 5. And now another issue has been created by not allowing in food and water inside the BNP Gulshan office. This is unheard of and most imprudent behaviour on the part of the administration.

While the nation is calling for a quick resolution of the problem it is unthinkable that the two parties would behave in such irresponsible manner.  Hartals and oborodhs and the repressive attitude towards a political opponent by the government will only prolong the sufferings of the nation.

The two parties must act more sensibly so that at least the current situation, bad as it is, does not slide to a an absolutely irretrievable situation.