Let the truth be known: no one has any idea what’s going to happen to Bangladeshi politics.
istomorrowhartal.com, a 2015 website that offers timely information on hartals (strikes) and blockades in Bangladesh, has resurfaced again in 2023 in midst of the ongoing blockades. The service was initially set up during a period of frequent hartals by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and has recently updated its offerings to include information on the latest blockades by the same party.
There is no doubt that the country is heading towards a long-drawn confrontational politics ahead of the election.
In Dhaka, the designated streets occupied by BNP looked like a battlefield.
At least seven foreign missions in Bangladesh have issued a statement calling on all stakeholders to exercise restraint, refrain from violence and work together to create the conditions for free, fair, participatory and peaceful elections.
Saturday’s violence may only be a premonition of much worse days to come
No long-distance buses left or entered Dhaka since morning.
The six-hour hartal enforced by Bandarban district Awami League protesting the murder of its leader ends peacefully.
Sound bursts have been used to disperse pro-shutdown activists in Dhaka city, during a pro-left sponsored half-day hartal protesting retail power tariff hike. The hartal has had little observable effect on daily city life.
Bangladeshi-American engineer Shah Talukder had definite reasons to feel proud when his daughter launched a language coaching programme for poor students back in his motherland four years ago. And he had reasons to be frustrated too when Leilah, in the US, had trouble communicating with her students in Bangladesh due to hartals, weather, or traffic jams.
Despite a 24-hour countrywide hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami across the country, Dhaka city dwellers came out in streets and performed their daily jobs as usual today.
Appalled by the Supreme Court verdict against war criminal Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Jamaat-e-Islami calls a 24-hour hartal from tomorrow.
The passing rate in secondary school certificate and its equivalent examinations would have been higher if there had been no hartal and blockade during the examinations, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says.
The High Court grants four-week anticipatory bail to BNP leader Rafiqul Islam Mia in seven criminal cases.
Gonojagaran Mancha calls a six-hour hartal in Sylhet division tomorrow, protesting the murder of blogger Ananta Bijoy Das.
Education ministry asks the affected education institutions to cut down the summer vacation in half if needed for the recently passed political violence.
Sans any unusual activity anywhere in the country, it was difficult to realise that a hartal sponsored by the BNP-led 20-party alliance is underway.
At least three crude bombs go off in Nayapaltan area of Dhaka this evening, hours after the BNP-led 20-party alliance called hartal for Wednesday.
BNP-led 20-party alliance announces countrywide hartal for Wednesday protesting today’s attack on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s motorcade. Dhaka and Chittagong metropolitan areas will remain out of the hartal purview.
