Strike in B’desh to protest crackdown on Islamists

A two-day nationwide shutdown called by BNP-led opposition alliance began on Wednesday in Bangladesh to protest what it called ‘mass killings’ of marauding members of a radical Islamist outfit in police crackdown during its ‘Dhaka siege’ campaign demanding a tougher blasphemy law. Thousands of policemen in riot gears and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) troops enforced a strict vigil in the capital city Dhaka, where most private cars stayed off the roads and schools were closed.

Witnesses and police said the opposition cadres exploded several crude bombs and vandalised a bus in parts of the city to enforce their strike but no incident of clash was reported in the initial shutdown hours.

In the run-up to the general strike on Tuesday, suspected BNP and Jamaat members set afire a posh train in Chittagong, while vandalised or torched several vehicles and exploded crude bombs in Dhaka.

The call for the general strike by the 18-party alliance, with fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami being a major partner,came a day after a Dhaka court placed senior Hefazat-e-Islam leader Junaid Babunagari on a nine-day police remand following his arrest.

The Hefazat-e-Islam or ‘Protectorate of Islam’ has unleashed riots on Dhaka streets since Sunday to mount pressure on the secular Awami League-led government.